


Instincts

by StarFar



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alpha Harry, Alpha Zayn, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Animal Instincts, Animalistic, Beta Liam, Bonding, Cliffhangers, Fate, Imprinting, M/M, Omega Louis, Omega Niall, One Shot, Pack Dynamics, References to Knotting, Scent Marking, Scenting, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Soul Bond, Stockholm Syndrome, WIP, Werewolf Mates, Werewolves, Wolf Instincts, reference
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 01:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 40,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11703510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarFar/pseuds/StarFar
Summary: When Harry's late night stroll brings him upon a strange wolf he knows he should be chasing him off their land. However every instinct is telling him to look after the confused omega. Harry doesn't know how to handle the omega fate has thrown at him, all he knows is that he'd quite like to keep him.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is started off as a one shot, and becasue I have no self control is now a full length story. 
> 
> I originally started writing this to scratch an itch. I'd wanted to re-read a story call 'Damned from the Start' but it turns out it's been taken down. The author of that story was LikeYouAreInLove and they have other stories up so you should check them out if you're interested. The across pack lines relationship idea comes from that story so they deserve the credit. 
> 
> This is a cross of pack dynamics and alpha/beta/omega dynamics, and has nothing to do with either of my other stories so discount any of the world building around abo dynamics I've done in my other works. 
> 
> I think that's all the important stuff. Feel free to leave comments and I hope you enjoy reading this. xx.

The wolf didn’t know why the scent bothered him so much, more than any other intruder ever had. Harry had chased off many an intruder before, and yet this one’s scent was different. It was an easterner obviously, and an omega, and yet there was more to it than that. It was warm somehow, like his bed first thing in the morning, or hot coco on a winter’s day. Outsider’s scent were threatening not comforting.

Not that much was a threat to Harry these days. In the last twelve months Harry had shot up and filled out. Finally. He’d been waiting to look like a proper alpha for four years, since he presented at seventeen, and finally his body fit his stupidly long legs and massive hands. He was now one of the biggest alphas in the pack, as befit his place as future pack leader.

He’d been out checking the eastern boarder markers, on a whim before heading to bed, when he’d come across the foreign scent. It was just a single scent. What an omega was doing out here by himself in a foreign territory Harry had no idea. But either way it was his job to see the alien wolf off. And Harry was curious to see the wolf who had left such a scent.

He pushed through the undergrowth, following his nose towards the eastern border. It was late enough that the moon was setting, and the grass was damp but Harry felt more awake then he had all day.

It didn’t take him long to find the wolf. He was small, even for an omega, making Harry wonder how young he was, and he was making no attempt to hide his presence. Harry forced a warning growl through his teeth at the outsider. It was more difficult than he expected, his instincts told him he should be looking after the omega not threatening him.

The other wolf jumped, ears shooting up and he glanced around frantically, as if he didn’t know where he was. He stopped suddenly when his blue eyes landed on the much larger wolf. His hunches went up and his hair stood on end as he made out the shape of the dark wolf mostly hidden in the shadows.

“Who are you?” The foreign wolf’s voice sounded in Harry’s mind, loud and demanding, and completely at odds with his small frame and calming scent.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Harry replied, tilting his head to the side questioningly, unable to keep up the growling.

The omega continued to snarl at him as he started circling the alpha who was moving into the clearing. Harry just sat down and watched him, not bothering to turn when the omega circled around behind his back. Not showing your back to an enemy was the first lesson he’d been taught as a pup, but he couldn’t bring himself to see this omega as a threat.

Harry’s disregard for the danger the other wolf posed just seemed to piss the omega off.

“And why do I owe you an explanation?” the omega hissed, as he came back into Harry’s eye line.

Harry shrugged, an odd movement when he was in wolf form, “Maybe because you’re on my territory?”

The grey wolf stopped quite suddenly, nose twitching as he took a good sniff around. Obviously having not realised where he was.

“See?” Harry asked, head tilting again, “Now I ask again, who are you?”

The omega seemed to deflate, “I’m Louis… Tomlinson.”

Harry frowned, or at least as much as he could in this form, “Tomlinson? As in…?”

“The Yorkshire and Humber pack’s alpha? Yeah, I’m his son.” The grey wolf’s head hung, though he still kept Harry within his eye line.

“What are you doing here?” Harry asked in confusion, “The omega son of a pack alpha alone in foreign territory? That doesn’t seem likely.”

Harry glanced around for signs of a trap, but he knew that he would have smelt them long before now, no matter how distracting Louis’ own scent was.  

“Just point me back to the border would you?” Louis rolled his eyes with a huff, “and I’ll be on my way. I assume I’m somewhere in the western coalition’s territory.”

“We’re just south of the peak district.” Harry nodded, standing and taking a couple of cautious steps towards the omega.

Louis backed away as the alpha advanced, “Right well, I’ll just…”

 “If you think I’m letting you go anywhere alone you’re mistaken,” Harry scoffed, advancing further until Louis had his back against a fallen tree, “you’re a strange wolf and this is my territory.”

Those blue eyes rolled again, “ _Your_ territory?”

“Yeah, my territory,” He said with a smirk in his voice, “I’m Harry.”

“You say that like it should mean something to me.”

Harry was standing close enough now that Louis had to tilt his head back to look at him.

“My father was the architect of the Western Coalition,” Harry stepped forward again, so his head was hovering over the smaller boys, “Desmond Styles.”

“Well that explains the overly domineering alpha attitude,” Louis huffed, trying to use the top of his head to push the alpha back.

Harry ignored his attempts as he dropped his head, nosing around the back of Louis’ neck.

“I’m coming with you,” He insisted into Louis’ fur, “at least as far as the border.”

 Louis shrugged the alpha off, “Fine. Can we go now?”

Harry wore a wolfish grin as he stepped back with a shrug, “Lead on sweetheart.”

 Louis pushed passed Harry, nose in the air, using the scents to orientate himself before heading off into the unknown woods confidently.

Harry could only watch for a couple of seconds before his instincts forced him to move. He jogged to catch up to the smaller wolf. He pushed to the front so he was half leading the other boy, and so he could put himself between Louis and anything potentially dangerous that they came across.

Louis just rolled his eyes and let him continue. Harry figured he was probably quite used to having the attention of alphas considering his position within his pack.

“So…” Harry said over his shoulder, “you still haven’t told me what you’re doing here. I find it hard to believe that you just wandered onto our territory by accident.”

“Why? Because your scent markers stink to kingdom come?” Louis piped back.

“Well you don’t smell too bad yourself love.”

Louis barked a short laugh, “Why are all alphas so good at mistaking insults for compliments?”

“It’s just one of my many talents.”

“Along with wiping your scent all over me, don’t think I didn’t notice,” Louis snapped out, “I’m going to stink for days.”

“I think you smell nice like that,” Harry said with all his teeth on display.

“Yes well, there’s nothing most alphas love more than their own scents.”

“There’s one thing I love more than my own scent,”

“Oh yes?” Louis asked sarcastically, “and what’s that?”

“My scent on you.” Harry got out, Louis having walked straight into his set up.

“Go fuck a pine cone.”

“Only if you join me,” Harry replied suggestively.

Louis huffed and pushed forward faster.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice your deflecting,” Harry said after a while, “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Which question was that?”

“What you’re doing on my land.”

Louis ignored him, speeding up until he was moving at a trot.

“Come on love,” Harry insisted, matching his pace easily on his longer legs, “I can’t let outsiders just come and go as they please, no matter how nice they smell.”

Louis stayed quiet for long enough that Harry was getting ready to ask again.

“I was sleep walking.”

“Sleepwalking?” Harry asked in disbelief.

Louis nodded sharply.

“Do you usually go for midnight runs in your sleep?”

“Of course not,” Louis’ voice snapped in his head.

“You’re a long way from home,” Harry pointed out, “What were you dreaming about?”

“None of your business,” Louis retorted far too quickly.

“I could have attacked you when I found you, and chased you off our territory,” Harry pointed out, “I would have been well within my rights, and then where would you be?”

“Not stuck here talking to you, which would be an improvement,” Louis sounded resigned.

“You didn’t even know where you were,” Harry continued unabated, “I could have chased you down south and then you’d be even further away from home.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because you’re a long way from home, and I want to know what you were dreaming about that caused you to come so far.”

Louis sighed, “My mate.”

Harry scoffed, “You don’t have a mate. You wouldn’t smell so good if you did.”

“My future mate.”

Harry’s shoulder shook with wolf laughter, “Well that explains why you’re so snappish, and why you smell so good. I apologise from waking you up from such a… _pleasurable_ thought.”

“Oh fuck off.”

Harry continued to chortle, “So you chased your future mate all the way across the border.”

Louis stayed resolutely quiet.

“Come on, you’ve got to tell me now you’ve started,” Harry insisted, with big pleading eyes.

“You’re just going to make fun of my stupid omega fantasies aren’t you?”

“Please?”

Louis huffed again before giving in, “Fine, I was dreaming about having a soul bond.”

Harry glanced back at him in interest, “Well no wonder you were willing to come so far.”

Louis shrugged, keeping his eyes on his feet.

“So what’d he look like?”

“He?”

“Well there’s no written evidence that an omega can soul bond with anyone other than an alpha and most alphas are male,” Harry explained, “So yes, he.”

“That’s very regressive of you,” Louis pointed out again.

“You’re deflecting again.”

“I didn’t see them,” Louis admitted, “I was just following their scent.”

“Should I read into the fact that the scent led you across the border to me?” Harry joked.

“Please don’t,” Louis snorted, “your ego is big enough without thinking fate gave you me as a mate.”

“Well it would explain how nice I find your scent despite you being from a hostile pack.” Harry said, thinking how nice it would be to believe just that, “And why I couldn’t just attack you.”

“You couldn’t attack me because I’m an omega and you’re hardwired to want to protect omegas.” Louis responded, “and I smell good for the same reason, I’m an omega.”

“If you could smell what I smell you’d know that was rubbish,” Harry insisted as they drew close to the border.

Louis just scoffed, as Harry stopped at one of Louis’ pack’s scent markers.

“Well you better take a good sniff cause you’re not going to be smelling it much longer.”

Harry didn’t need any more encouragement, turning to bury his nose in the fur over Louis’ scent glands again.

Louis huffed in surprise, “I was joking.”

Harry just snorted and continued with what he was doing, rubbing across the top of Louis’ head so the omega’s nose was close buried in his own neck.

Really it was the last thing he should have been doing. Letting a stranger from another pack get his teeth so close to his throat would likely be a death sentence in most situations but Harry’s instincts were begging him to ignore his common sense and continued scenting the omega.

Louis just stood still and let Harry continued unabated, obviously having realised that trying to dissuade him was hopeless. Harry eventually moved back a pace, causing Louis to shake his head to resettle the fur Harry had disrupted.

“Done?” Louis asked expectantly, “Can I go now?”

Harry bit his tongue uncertainly before shooting forward and drawing it across Louis’ ears abruptly.

Louis went shock still in surprise at the alpha’s behaviour. Behaviour which he’d expect from a close friend or a potential mate, not from a stranger from outside his pack.  

“Be careful yeah?” Harry asked when he drew away again, “Get home safely.”

Louis rolled his eyes yet again before meeting Harry’s green ones.

“I’ll be fine, though I might have to role in some cow dung to get the smell of you off me.”

“And why would you want to do that?” Harry offended.

“How about so my pack doesn’t think I’ve been sneaking off to visit a lover from another pack?” Louis shot back.

“But isn’t that precisely what you did?” Harry grinned, “Crossed the border to find your mate?”

Louis shook his head before walking passed the alpha and across the border.

“Goodbye knothead,” He said as he passed him.

“Try to not dream about me anymore,” Harry called as Louis heading into the undergrowth.

Louis didn’t reply, just swiped his tail across Harry’s muzzle, before picking up his pace and disappearing completely. Harry gazed after him for a while, being certain that he would find a way to see the omega again, no matter what it took.

“See you later, Lou.”


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. I've been travelling and don't have my laptop with me so I haven't been able to add to either of my chapter fics, so to scratch my writing itch I've written this. So I guess this is a two shot now. 
> 
> I'll probably end up continuing this once I've finished If Anyone Knew cause as you'll probably notice I've started world building. Let me know if any of you guys would be interested in reading it if I do. 
> 
> Once I'm home I'll continue with my other works. xx

“What times the hunting party supposed to get back?” Niall asked as they marked another tree.

“Well that will depend on if they catch anything,” Liam pointed out, scratching his ear with one of his back legs.

“Yes Niall,” Harry huffed, his almost black ears flicking around as he scanned for sounds in the surrounding woods, “you will get back in time for dinner. You won’t miss out I promise.”

“It’s probably got more to do with a certain blond who is out with the hunt,” Liam said as they moved on to the next boarder marker.

“Oh?” Harry asked, speeding up to nip at Niall’s hind paws, “since when is that a thing?”

Niall shook his shaggy brown head and ignored the digs from the other wolves. They were out marking the borders, as they did every second day, and to check for intruders crossing the border. They were at the north eastern corner and needed to get right up to the northern most tip of the territory before they could head back to the dens and eat.

Border patrol was probably one of the most boring jobs within the pack, but Harry hated making other people do stuff that he wasn’t willing to do himself. That often meant that he did twice as much work as everyone else, and that the other boys got roped into doing it as well cause they were just generally too nice.

“So how much longer till your sister drops the pups?” Liam asked as they continued to head further north, marking trees and rocks as they went.

“She’s only just entered her second trimester, dude,” Niall rolled his eyes at Liam’s forgetfulness, the beta had never been good with numbers.

“How am I supposed to know that?” Liam asked indignantly.

“Maybe cause she’s not even showing yet?” Niall would have been laughing if he’d been in his human form.

Harry tuned out the other boys bickering, quite used to it after five years together. Niall wasn’t a natural born member of either of the western coalition packs. He was from one of the Irish packs originally, but apparently not all packs were cool with male omegas yet. He’d joined them shortly after he presented at fifteen.

Liam and Harry had been together since they were boys, when Liam’s family had changed packs as part of the coalition arrangements. At the beginning of the coalition each pack was require to swap a family with each of the other packs in order to facilitate closer ties with their new allies, and eventually blood tires once the younger wolves mated with members of their new pack. At first it had been duty that made him befriend the beta from the west midlands pack, knowing that it must be difficult leaving all his friends behind. His father had expected it of him but now he was more than grateful even if he didn’t always see eye to eye with his father.

“Harry are you even listening to us?” Niall’s voice cut through Harry’s musings.

“No I’m not,” Harry said dryly.

“Good to know we’re not the only thing he’s not paying attention to,” Liam added, moving off to one side.

“What are you implying Liam?” Harry asked, turning to look at the other wolf.

“I’m implying that neither of you have noticed that scent,” Liam said smugly as his nose dropped to the ground.

Harry inhaled deeply, trying to detect what Liam had over the overwhelming scent of the border markers.

“There’s another patrol coming,” Liam elaborated, moving closer to the other boys, “and it’s not one of ours.”

Now that Harry knew what he was looking for he could detect the scent himself. The wind was blowing the scent in the wrong direction for them to have picked it up earlier, and Harry would bet the hunting parties entire catch that the other patrol had detected them long ago.

Harry could hear them coming now as well, and straight at them too, reaffirming to Harry what he already knew; they knew they were there.

The two older boys took up defensive positions on Harry’s flanks, facing the direction the other patrol was coming from. The foreign wolves emerged from the undergrowth moments later. They were led by a large black wolf, smaller but dark then Harry himself, whose fur was rather a dark brown rather than completely black. Two smaller wolves followed the first, one a beta female with charcoal coloured fur, and the second…

Harry recognised Louis the moment his head emerged from the bracken.

The wind eased off for a moment, allowing Harry to get a good whiff of Louis’ scent, despite the stench from the border markers. Harry had to force himself not to visible relax at the omega’s presence and maintain his defensive posture.

The two larger wolves moved to the front, keeping Louis behind them where he was well guarded.

“Like to tell us why you’re loitering on our border?” the leader of the foreign patrol asked in mock civility as his lips drew back to show his teeth.

“I imagine we’re doing the same thing you’re doing,” Liam replied when it became obvious that Harry wasn’t going to. He was too busy trying to catch Louis’ eye.

The omega obviously knew he was there, he wouldn’t be so insistently trying to avoid looking at him if he was just another strange wolf to him. Louis kept his eyes on the ground, or on the other two wolves from his own pack, ignoring Harry completely.

It had been almost half a year since they’d met that night in the woods, and barely a week had passed where Harry hadn’t found some excuse to wander off into this area of the woods in hope of running into the sleep walking omega again.

“Not planning on trying to pinch prey I hope,” the black alpha spoke again.

“Why? Is that what you were doing?” Liam asked back, just as over politely.

Liam shifted, nudging Harry side in an attempt to gain some reaction from the distracted alpha. Niall was not so subtle, stepping backwards onto Harry’s tail and making him jump with an undignified yelp.

Harry glared at Niall, frustrated that the beta would let him appear like an idiot in front of members of a hostile pack. His mood improved dramatically however when he saw Louis’ mouth open and his chest vibrate in what passed for a laugh in their wolf form.

Harry sat down, deciding that this situation was unlikely to result in a fight.

“Why don’t we both just go about our business?” Liam asked sensibly.

“After you,” was the black wolf’s reply.

Harry glanced between Louis and the alpha who seemed to be doing all the speaking. It seemed strange to him that they would take defensive positions around Louis and yet Louis wasn’t the one in charge. This dark alpha obviously out ranked him, despite the fact that Louis was the son of their pack leader. In fact, Louis’ behaviour suggested that even the other wolf, the beta, out ranked him. Obviously presentation meant more than blood within the other pack.

“If you think we’re leaving while you’re less than a foot from our land you are mistaken,” Harry said with an unimpressed look.

“But you somehow expect us to?” the alpha asked in exasperation.

“We were here first,” Niall pipped up.

The black alpha only spared the Irishman half a glance, as if he were a mildly annoying fly.

“We’re hardly likely to be planning an invasion with an omega in tow.”

“Why would that deter you?” Liam asked, showing surprise despite himself, “most of the omegas I know are perfectly capable of holding their own.”

The dark alphas nose rose so he was looking down on all of them except Harry himself.

“Are the western packs so desperate for fighters that they make the omegas go against their very nature?” He asked, with an annoyingly superior air, “Is that why they needed the coalition in order to hold their own with the rest of the packs?”

Niall scoffed but Liam cut him off, “We are not here to debate the social hierarchy of our pack. We were merely remarking the boarder as we do regularly.”

“So why don’t you get on with it then?” was the response from the foreign alpha.

“Why don’t you?” Niall shot back.

“Oh don’t start that again?” Louis snapped suddenly, pushing passed the beta to stand on equal par with the alpha, “seriously it’s like listening to bickering children.”

Harry couldn’t help the wolfish grin that took over then.

“Behold he speaks,” Harry commented.

Louis met his eye for the first time since they appeared, giving Harry a blank, unimpressed stare.

“Lou…” the foreign alpha started.

“Zayn…” Louis said back flatly.

The other alphas head went down as his mouth snapped shut.

“Now,” Louis continued once he had complete silence, “we’re both heading along the border, so we may as well just continue together until we get to where the borders diverge.”

“That’s just south of here,” Niall put in, obviously not at all cowed by the annoyed omega, “where the border with the east midlands pack starts.”

Louis nodded sharply, looking slowly from face to face to see if anyone was going to try challenging the idea. Harry just watched the omega when he reached him.

“Fine with me love,” Harry agreed smugly.

The black wolf, Zayn, lips drew back from his teeth in a low growl.

“You’ll speak to him with some respect or you’ll leave here minus some fur,” he hissed.

Harry glanced slowly from Louis to Zayn, “Why don’t you try me?” He asked calmly, standing up to his full height.

Zayn was a decent sized alpha but with Harry’s height and his longer fur he looked like a monster of a wolf. Louis was dwarfed next to him. Zayn didn’t back down though, taking a step forward as his fur stood on end.

“Oh my god,” Louis complained loudly, shouldering his way between them, “must alphas always act like idiots? Seriously, how has the alpha population not wiped itself out by now? Gotta wonder if we’d be better off without all of you.”

“You’d miss us,” Harry joked, quite pleased with how close Louis was standing.

“Whatever makes you sleep at night,” Louis replied from his place between the alphas.

“I think you could help me sleep at night,”

Zayn growled angrily again and Louis had to push him back to stop him from lunging at Harry as the other foreign beta stepped forward, ready to back the alpha up.

“Leave it Zayn,” Louis grunted into his fur as he held the alpha off, “he’d just trying to get a reaction.”

“He’s insulting you,” Zayn snapped back.

“Which means I’m the one who should be insulted not you,” Louis shot back, “and if it’s not bothering me it shouldn’t bother you.”

“By insulting you he’s insulting our whole pack,” Zayn insisted, glaring at Harry.

“Bull shit,” Louis snapped back, “if I was an alpha you’d expect me to fight my own battles so why not let me deal with this?”

“Lou…” Zayn whined, “You know I’m just…”

“I know,” Louis cut him off gently, bumping Zayn’s flank with the top of his head, “but I’m asking you to leave it.”

Zayn huffed, stepping back and levelling Harry with another glare before turning south.

“Can we get this over with then?”

Harry glanced behind himself at Niall and Liam with a shrug, before turning to Louis and nodding.

“Good,” Louis said shortly before walking off south, forcing the rest of them to follow.

Harry trotted to catch up and happily fell into step beside the omega. Harry could smell the other alpha’s annoyance in his scent but Harry ignored it, more interested in enjoying Louis’ presence while he had a chance. Niall and Liam jogged along behind them, off to Harry’s right so they were still on their own land while the alpha and omega walked along the border. Zayn and the other beta followed behind on the other side, shooting glances at Harry and his pack mates.

They continued along, mostly in silence, stopping every now and then to reinforce more border markers. Niall and Zayn may have gotten into a bit of a pissing contest over who could make the strongest scent marker, which Harry found rather amusing but Liam, Louis and the other beta all looked rather repulsed.

Harry himself may have walked rather a lot closer to Louis then was really necessary. The omega could have move away, but that would have meant allowing Harry to walk along the border rather than on his side of it, so Louis put up with it. That pleased Harry immensely, allowing the alpha to scent the omega some more and brush his own scent off on him in turn.

Eventually, after much growling and eye rolling they reached the point where the borders diverged, Harry’s continuing south as Louis’ went east.

“Finally,” Zayn said in exasperation, trotting off to the east before stopping a short distance off to wait for the others.

Harry looked back at the other boys and nodded further along the border, indicating that they should go ahead.

Liam nodded and moved off. Niall followed more slowly, giving Harry a long look as he walked passed, crooked tail wagging slowly.

Zayn growled a warning when it became obviously that Harry wasn’t planning on moving on straight away.

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist darling,” Harry said, over Louis’ shoulder to Zayn, “I’m not going to attack him. I don’t make a habit of attacking people without provocation.”

“Then what are you doing?” Louis asked quietly, grateful for the wolves’ ability to make it so only those they wanted to hear could hear. If they had been speaking in human form the other wolves would have definitely been able to hear thanks’ to the werewolves’ enhanced hearing.

“Saying good bye to my soul mate,” Harry joked quietly, ducking his head to look into Louis’ eyes.

“God I knew I should never have told you that.” Louis shook himself before turning his back on the alpha and walking away towards Zayn and the nameless wolf. “I blame the fact that I was sleep deprived.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night love,” Harry mimicked back at Louis’ retreating form.

Louis didn’t replied, instead walking passed the other boys and disappearing into the trees to the east followed by the two other wolves. Zayn took the time to snarl at Harry one more time before following the omega. Harry stayed where he was until the other pack wolves had disappeared before turning to join Niall and Liam.

“Mate is your rut due or something?” Liam asked him incredulously, “your acting way more alpha than usual.”

“Or was that omega close to his heat?” Niall suggest as he turned to follow the two bigger wolves, “cause that other alpha was being pretty aggressive too.”

“No,” Liam insisted, “Harry was definitely into that omega.”

Harry shrugged as best he could as he walked, “He smelled nice.”

“A foreign wolf smelled nice?” Liam asked sceptically.

“Definitely near a heat,” Niall nodded, as if that settled the matter, “got to be.”

“Whatever you say guys,” Harry replied dryly, “maybe I just thought he was cute.”

Niall scoffed, “oh yeah, trust you to have a size kink.”

“Go fuck a pine cone.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Love, you have to keep your tail down,” Louis explained for what felt like the fiftieth time in the last hour, “If you wave it around like that they’ll see you coming a mile away.”

Daisy’s tail dropped, “Sorry Lou, I’m just excited.”

“I know,” Louis replied more gently, “but you’re waving your tail around like an excited puppy dog. You need to stay as still and as silent as possible, especially when hunting smaller prey like rabbits.”

“I suppose those big ears must be good for something,” she joked, giving her older brother a wolfish grin.

Louis huffed, shaking his head, “I glad you’ve got Mum’s sense of humour and didn’t get stuck with fathers.”

“Dad doesn’t have a sense of humour,” Daisy said in confusion, looking over her shoulder at Louis.

“My point exactly,” Louis said flatly, “now how about we go find something real for you to practice on? There’s only so much you can learn by pouncing on feathers.”

“Really?” Daisy’s ear perked up, “Yes! Finally!” she exclaimed, bouncing into the air with a howl.

“Well I guess you just signed up for a long walk,” Louis side in mild amusement, “considering you just scared off all the prey for five miles.”

“Oops,” Daisy said, appropriately chastised, “sorry.”

Louis shook his head fondly before leading the way up into the hills. They headed up towards the peak district, where there were less people and therefore more prey. Daisy was bouncing. Whenever she caught Louis watching her, she’d get quiet, obviously trying to contain her excitement and look appropriately serious but regaining her bounce whenever she thought he wasn’t paying attention.

Louis remembered what it was like for him, the first time he’d been allowed to actually attempt to catch something that was actually alive. He’d been several years older than Daisy was though, an unfortunate side effect of him being an omega. Daisy, and her twin sister Pheobe, were eleven year old betas. They’d been training in both hunting and combat since they could walk but they were rarely let out on their own, considering who their father was.

The eldest of Louis’ younger sisters, Charlotte, was out with Pheobe, doing the same thing they were. They’d figured it’d be easier to tackle the girls separately. The two blonds had a habit of bouncing off each other and therefore making any exciting experiences borderline impossible to manage unless they were outnumbered.

“So have you found anything yet?” Louis asked after a while.

“What?” Daisy asked in confusion, “I thought you were going to give me something to hunt and then watch me. I didn’t know I was meant to be finding it myself.”

“This is hunting practise,” Louis said seriously, aware that in this situation it could be very easy to be overly harsh, “finding the prey is half the battle. Now, tell me what prey is nearby.”

“Well…” Daisy started slowly, coming to a halt, “we’re far enough away from scent markers and humans that there could well be deer around, they’d likely be down by the stream.”

“For your first kill we’re looking for something a little smaller than a deer,” Louis chuckled, nudging her along with his nose to get her moving again, “What else?”

“Right… um,” Daisy moved slowly, nose in the air and ears twitching, “well, rabbits and squirrels obviously. I can smell fox, but then they always stink. Hedgehogs and mice, though that’s not really helpful. And something… grassy?”

Louis took a sniff himself, sorting through the scents and ticking of each of the ones she’s mentioned.

“Sheep,” Louis identified, “there’s a flock north of here. Why don’t we eat sheep or cattle?”

“Because we don’t want to start another war with the humans,” Daisy parroted, obviously relieved that she knew the answer to this one, “half a millennia ago they almost wiped us out. At the time of the truce both humans and werewolves signed a treaty stating that they would act as if the other did not exist and wouldn’t take anything obviously owned by the other species.”

“Which include?”

“Livestock, houses and transportation, for the humans,” Daisy listed, “and the humans themselves, obviously. We’re not allowed to turn humans anymore. And for us, prey, dens and the ancestral pack lands and of course, our pups.”

Louis nodded, “Yes, the humans liked to try and keep us as pets. To tame us.”

“But a bite from an adult wolf will infect a human…” Daisy pointed out in confusion.

“Yes well…” Louis shrugged, bending awkwardly to scratch at his back, “They usually didn’t want us once we were passed the cute puppy stage. Now, which of the animals you mentioned would be the best for our purposes?”

“Oh… um…” Daisy was obviously thrown but the sudden change of subject, “rabbits I suppose. They at least have some meat on them.”

“Well then… find us a rabbit,” Louis said, stepping back to allow Daisy to take the lead.

Daisy became all focus then, nose twitching as she searched around for the scent she’d found earlier. After a few moments her head went down, and she headed off downhill. Louis followed a couple of body lengths behind, making sure to be quiet and tread gently so as not to disturb either the younger wolf or any prey around.

He followed his sister for almost fifteen minutes, until they reached a small stream, which they headed west along. As they went downstream Louis picked up numerous rabbit scents, but most of them were holed up in their burrows or foraging amongst tree roots where they couldn’t get to them. Daisy was obviously sifting through the scents without too much trouble, which was good. Louis personally thought that was the hardest part to deal with as a wolf, all the smells, though they were somewhat stronger for him considering he was an omega.

“Found one,” She said quietly, despite the fact that the rabbit didn’t have the ability to hear the wolves’ thought language.

“Ok,” Louis replied, stopping and dropping down onto his stomach, “you know what you’re doing. Bring me that rabbit.”

Daisy nodded silently, lower her body and creeping into the undergrowth. She orientated herself so the slight breeze was blowing towards her as to not alert the forager. Her tail was still waging slightly but Louis remained quiet, some lessons had to be learn for oneself. She creep closer, edging out of Louis’ line of sight. Louis let her go. When she failed, which she most likely would, he’d step in and demonstrate. She’d never be happy until she’d tried for herself.

Louis felt when she was getting ready to pounce, rather than saw it. The pads of their paws were incredibly sensitive to vibrations. Louis just hoped that she was still far enough away that the rabbit couldn’t feel it as well. It was a fine line between far enough away to avoid detection and close enough to catch it before it fled into some small nock or cranny. Louis generally found hunting smaller animals more difficult than the large, exactly because they had so many placed to hide. Unfortunately Louis was very rarely allowed out with the proper hunter parties, and so had to be content with rabbits and the odd badger.

Daisy leaped.

“Damn it!” Daisy yelled, as Louis moved to see what had happened.

He got there in time to see Daisy take off further west after the rabbit.

“Daisy!” Louis called, shaking his head, “Let it go, once you’ve lost the element of surprise you’re chances of catching drop dramatically. They’re faster then us!”

She wasn’t listening, obviously. Louis sighed and started after her. It was only moments later that the foreign scents filled his nose. Border markers. He hadn’t realised they were so close. After the border had moved slightly a few weeks back Louis wasn’t yet entirely familiar with their new section of their territory.  

“Daisy?” He called again, picking up speed when he got no response, “Daisy!”

Louis skidded to a halt as he hit the border proper, nose to the ground trying to figure out if she’d crossed. The single scent of his sister was hard to distinguish from the general pack scent of the markers, and the overwhelming stink of the neighbouring pack.

“Daisy, where are you?” He called, giving up on his nose and turning to his ears instead.

There. Just to the north the sound of a rabbit meeting its end. Louis sighed in relief.

His relief was short lived.

A snarl broke the air. Followed by a yelp.

“Louis!” Daisy screamed in Louis’ head.

The omega dashed straight across the border. Completely forgetting about the fact that if Daisy had been attacked by another wolf there was probably little he could do. She was ten, and he was the smallest fully grown member of his pack. And wolves this close to the border rarely travelled in anything other than a full sized patrol.

“Louis, help!” Daisy yelped again, as Louis tore straight thought the undergrowth towards his sister.

“Daisy!”

There were three of them. The regular size for a casual patrol. Two dark brown wolves and a smaller tawny red wolf. All stood in a hostile semi-circle around the tiny blond she wolf.

“Get away from her!” Louis snarled, throwing himself between them.

His sister cowered down behind his bigger body, making herself as small as possible while Louis did the exact opposite, fluffing up his fur and baring his teeth.  The ginger wolf was the closest to him, and the smallest. Focusing on him made Louis feel less terrified, even though he knew he should have been keeping an eye on all of them, doing otherwise was likely to get him killed.

“What are you doing on our land?” One of them demanded.

“Prey stealing,” spat another.

“Are the easterners so useless at hunting they have to steal rabbits from us to survive?” Added the ginger, sounding more amused then hostile.

“I’m sorry Lou,” Daisy cried pitifully, “I didn’t noticed the markers!”

“She’s just a kid!” Louis snapped at them, “and as you said, it’s only a rabbit. Keep it for all I care, just let her go.”

“Why should we?”

“Yeah, you’re on our land, and prey stealing is a punishable offense,” continued the first, trying to circle around to get behind Daisy.

The girl had enough training to put her back to a rock so she’d at least be difficult to attack from that side.

“Technically we’re allowed to either break her leg, or take an ear,” The vindictive wolf continued.

“Oh come on,” the ginger gave him a shove, “she’s a pup.”

“Exactly,” Louis snapped, turning his attention to the two brown wolves, realising that the ginger was the least dangerous for more reasons than just his size, “why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

“Maybe because there’s no one my size here for me to pick on.”

The ginger had stopped growling by now, but his claws were still out “Charlie…”

“Shut up Ed,” The first snapped, “you’re such a bloody omega.”

“If you wanna hurt someone,” Louis snarled, “hurt me.”

“With pleasure….”

The middle wolf was lightning fact. His jaws snaking forward to latch onto one of Louis’ hind legs, yanking it out from under him.

“WHATS GOING ON HERE?”

All five of the wolves jumped. The first wolves’ teeth were still attached to his leg however, causing fur and skin to come away with the movement. Louis couldn’t see the newcomer through the mass of legs and wolves bodies in front of him. 

“I said…” the wolf’s voice had dropped so he now soundly deadly calm, “what. Is. Going. On. Here.”

The teeth disconnected from Louis’ leg, allowing him to stagger back to his feet, and place himself back between them and his sister. Louis kept his eyes on the one that had bit him, deciding he was a vindictive dick who was probably only brave when he had numbers on his side.

“We caught this one stealing prey,” said the second brown wolf, nodding towards Daisy.

“And then this one decided to try and be a hero,” added the first.

“So what you’re saying is…”

Louis’ head snapped around so fast he half expected to get whiplash.

Harry.

“…that if it was one of our pups being threatened you wouldn’t lift a paw to protect them?”

If looks could kill the other wolf would have been a pile of bones.

“You just got yourself den cleaning duties for the rest of the month,” Harry hissed, stalking forward and placing himself between Louis and the hostile wolf, “Now get back to camp, before I take one of _your_ ears.”

“Prey stealing is…”

“It’s a pup, an omega and a rabbit for Christ sake,” Harry spat, squaring up with the other wolf, so he towered over him, “they’re hardly going to threaten the future of the pack.”

“But…”

Harry growled straight into his face, “If you dare question me again, I’ll see to it that you never father another child. Am I understood?”

Louis couldn’t see anything around Harry’s bulk, but the dick head obviously didn’t respond the way Harry wanted.

“I said,” Harry lunged, sinking his teeth into the other wolfs leg, “am I understood?”

He squeezed his jaws shut.

The other wolf yelped in pain.

“Yes! Yes! Understood. Let go.”

Harry released him, “Get. Back. To. Camp.”

The other wolf turned and fled, limping slightly but not enough to slow him down.

“Sorry Haz,” the other omega spoke up after the nasty one had left, “I tried, but you know…”

Harry glanced at him, “I know Ed. From now on I’ll make sure he’s always got someone outranking him whenever he’s on patrols.”

The ginger omega, Ed, nodded.

“You two can continue your patrol,” Harry nodded back towards the border, “I’ll deal with these two.”

“You’re the future pack alpha,” the nameless wolf insisted, “we can’t leave you alone with…”

“An omega, a pup and a dead rabbit?” Harry asked with a tilt of his head, “go on, get back to work.”

The brown wolf nodded, and he and Ed jogged away.

Once they disappeared over a rise Harry noticeably deflated. He breathed a deep sigh, and Louis wondered how often he had to physically pull rank on people like that. The alpha turned slowly to look down at Louis and his little sister, all trace of hostility gone.

“What’s your name little one?” He asked, crouching down to make himself less threatening.

Daisy stared at him with wide eyes, glancing at Louis in question while trying to shuffle backwards.

“Daisy,” Louis answered instead, “she’s my sister.”

Harry nodded, glancing up at him before focusing back on her, “its ok love, no one’s going to hurt you, or your brother, not while I’m here.”

“I didn’t mean…” She started before Harry shushed her.

“It’s alright, you’re young,” Harry said gently, nudging the side of her face with his nose, “you’ve got plenty of time to learn. Brave lass.” Harry gave her a broad lick across the ears before refocusing on Louis. “Are you alright?” He asked, bending round him to get a look at his damaged leg, “let me see.”

“I’m fine,” Louis snapped, twisting away and making the fun discovery that he couldn’t put weight on the damaged leg.

“You’re not, let me look,” Harry ordered, shifting again to get a better look. He nosed along the wound, “I don’t think it’s broken, you wouldn’t be able to stand me doing that if it was.”

Louis huffed.

“We should get you back to the border,” He said, ducking his head under Louis’ body to lift him to his feet, “Bring your rabbit Daisy.”

“But it’s…” She started slowly, “ _your_ rabbit.”

“Keep it,” Harry replied with a shrug, “I’m sure it means a lot more to you then it does to me. You can show it off to your friends once you get back home.”

Daisy’s ears perked up at that, “Really?”

Harry chuckled and nodded, “Come on, let’s get all three of you back to the border.”

Louis hopped as he turned, biting his lip to stop himself from whimpering.

“Hey,” Harry moved quickly in beside him, “let me.”

Harry pushed his side into Louis’ fur so the other boy had support on his injured side. Louis hated appearing weak, and Harry had had him on the off foot since the day they’d met. Louis would have been quite pleased if he’d never seen the alpha again. But then, he might have more than just muscle and skin damage if he hadn’t shown up when he did. They moved slowly back the way Louis had come. It becoming clearer and clearer that Louis wasn’t going to be able to walk on his own.

“Daisy,” Harry said to the girl who was walking along in front of them with her rabbit, “do you think you’ll be able to help your brother back to your dens?”

Daisy looked uncertainly between Louis and Harry.

“It’s alright,” Louis said through gritted teeth, “I can manage.”

“Bull shit,” Harry replied back, sounding amused, “Daisy, can you find your way back home from here?”

Daisy nodded around her mouthful of rabbit fur.

“You’ll have to go for help,” Harry continued, “You’ll be safe enough on your own land. Leave the rabbit with us, it’ll only slow you down. You can grab it when you come back with help.”

“Daisy,” Louis said with a sigh as they stopped at the row of border markers, “get Zayn. He’s meant to be helping Doniya move today so he should be around.”

Daisy nodded, dropping the rabbit at their feet before taking off, leaping straight across the stream she’d been hunting along earlier. Harry ruffled his fur as Louis dropped down onto the ground.

“She’s quick,” Harry commented idly, “and brave.”

“She’s too young to be scared yet,” Louis huffed, breathing hard, “she’ll learn.”

“She’ll learn,” Harry repeated sadly before turning to Louis and becoming all business, “Now let me take a better look at this leg of yours.”

“It’s fine,” Louis rolled his eyes, “Mum’ll fix me up once I get home.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t clean it up now,” Harry replied, moving towards Louis’ lower half and crouching down next to the leg in question.

Louis couldn’t be bothered arguing with him, and now that the adrenaline was leaking out of his blood it was starting to sting incessantly. Harry settled himself before gently closing his mouth around Louis’ paw and drawing the leg out towards himself.

“Stay still,” Harry ordered, as he went to work on Louis’ leg.

He swiped his tongue over the damaged skin. Pulling fur out of the wound and cleaning away any dirt stuck to the congealing blood. Louis winced but stayed quiet, not willing to let Harry think he’d been a bigger hero then he probably already did. The alpha kept at it for a good long while, obviously being as gentle as possible but also giving Louis warning growls whenever he attempted to pull the leg away. Louis just huffed, laying his head across his front paws and waiting for Zayn and Daisy to show up.

It took longer than Louis would have expected, or maybe it just felt like a long time because of how awkward he was feeling under the alpha’s attention.

“Lou!” Zayn’s voice sounded from behind them, making Louis stagger to his feet.

Zayn appeared at a run, followed a short distance behind by a puffing Daisy. The black alpha skidded to a halt next to Louis, lips drawing back in a growl aimed at Harry.

“What happened? What’d he do?”

“It’s ok Zayn,” Louis said, limping forward so he was slightly between the alphas, “It wasn’t Harry.”

“Harry?” Zayn asked glancing between Louis’ face, his damaged leg and Harry, “That’s you, I take it?”

Harry nodded as Daisy finally caught up, dropping straight to the ground and panting like a large Labrador. 

“You didn’t tell him what happened?” Louis addressed his little sister.

“He didn’t give me a chance,” She explained, rolling onto her back and wriggling to scratch her back, “Just said you needed help and he took off.”

“I followed her scent back here,” Zayn explained, still looking at Harry suspiciously as he moved forward to check Louis’ leg, “If it wasn’t him how come the wound smells so much like him?”

Louis ducked his head, looking at his feet, “He may have cleaned it up for me.”

“You let a non-pack member groom you?” Zayn asked sounding incredulous.

Louis grimaced with a shrug, “It’s not like I could have stopped him.”

“You touched him without his permission,” Zayn snarled, stepping forward aggressively.

Louis hopped forward to block the black alpha’s advance, “I let him! It needed doing and it’s in too awkward a position for me to reach comfortable. Besides if he hadn’t shown up when he did it could have been a lot worse.”

Zayn kept his eyes on the other alpha, but stepped back enough to allow Louis to relax. “Better tell me what happened then.”

Louis sat back down gingerly as he started explaining. By the time he was finished Zayn had sat down to consider Harry thoughtfully.

“Well I suppose I should say thank you then,” He said reluctantly, “though I hope you plan on giving those wolves a good hiding.”

“You know they were technically perfectly within their rights to attack anyone who was not only trespassing but also, prey stealing.” Louis pointed out, from where he’d laid down.

“You were protecting your sisters!” Zayn insisted.

“Exactly, they could have done it to her if they’d wanted to,” Louis rolled his eyes, flicking his tail in annoyance, “according to the settlement a broken leg is the punishment for prey stealing, and a wolf has the right to take a punishment for any wolf under their command. So really it was all above board.”

“Lou!” Zayn looked exasperated.

“I agree, they took it too far,” Harry cut it, before Louis could go on, “It’s just a rabbit and you two are hardly a threat. Charlie’s a bully, he’s already been banned from training the pups because he’s too harsh on them.”

“I feel like I should be offended by that,” Louis huffed.

Harry chuckled, leaning down to bump his head against Louis’ flank, “I’m sure you’re very fierce, when it’s not three to one.”

Louis could tell Zayn was uncomfortable with how familiar the other alpha was being with Louis but there was little he could do about it at that moment. Daisy had reclaimed her rabbit and was sitting with it across her front paws, obviously having got bored of the conversation a while back.

“Well let’s get you home,” Zayn said, in a completely unsubtle attempt to put distance between the two boys, “Your mother will want to look at that leg.”

Louis nodded, limping to his feet.

“Are we going?” Daisy pipped up, looking up from her examination of her rabbit.

“Yes,” Louis answered, “say thank you to Harry.”

“Thank you Harry,” She echoed, looking properly abashed.

“That’s alright love,” Harry replied, giving her a playful flick over the muzzle with his tail, “you won’t make that mistake again will you?”

She shook her head, “I’ll pay more attention next time, promise.”

“Good girl,” Harry nodded, as Louis and Zayn orientated themselves so the omega could lean on the bigger wolf.

“Well…” Louis said finally, “I guess I’ll see you around Harry.”

Harry nodded, “I hope you feel better soon.”

Louis nodded, as they began to walk away.

“Later Harry!” Daisy chirped before bending down to grab her rabbit and following the older wolves.

Going was slow for Louis and Zayn, and Daisy quickly got bored and went off ahead. They continued to limp along, Zayn choosing the clearest path so Louis could focus on where he was putting his feet.

“So…” Zayn started after a while, “he was friendly.”

Louis’ shrugged as best he could while limping along.

“And you didn’t discourage him,” Zayn added, obviously digging for a response.

“I didn’t want to seem ungrateful,” Louis eventually offered.

“He’s not entitled to anything just because he helped you,” Zayn insisted, “and you’re not one to let an alpha get way with that sort of behaviour.”

Louis grunted noncommittally.

“Lou…” Zayn bent around to look at him, “What aren’t you telling me?”

Louis looked at the ground guiltily.

“He was the same alpha from that border patrol issue last month,” Zayn probed, “Is there more going on there then you’re telling me?”

“What are you implying?” Louis asked indignantly.

“I don’t know, you tell me,” Zayn said as they continued stumbling along, “Are you and he…”

“What?!” Louis exclaimed, stopping dead, “Are you asking if I’m carrying on with an alpha from another pack?”

It was Zayn’s turn to shrug noncommittally, “Stranger things have happened.”

Louis’ scoffed, “Do you remember who my father is?”

“Come on Lou,” Zayn insisted with an annoyed grunt, “it’s not such a crazy idea. People don’t choose who they fall in love with.”

“I’d sooner stab myself with a carving knife,” Louis said dryly, starting to limp along again.

Zayn quickly moved to help him, “I’m just looking out for you. I’m not accusing you of anything, I’m just trying to understand your behaviour.”

“There’s nothing to understand,” Louis said resolutely, “he’s just a wolf I’ve met a couple of times. From what I’ve seen he’s overly affectionate with everyone, even towards Daisy who he’d never met before. It’s nothing.”

“If you say so Lou,” Zayn said sounding unconvinced, “Just… just be careful love. You know what happened to Adrian.”

“I know,” Louis said firmly, effectively ending the conversation, “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this is going to be a full length story now.
> 
> Everyone needs to go back and re-read the previous chapter as I've added another scene to it in order to make it a proper chapter. 
> 
> I'll only be updating once a month, which will hopefully give me enough time to stay on top of it and get more of Mating Up done as well. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who has already given me feedback, it's been a great help and motivator. xx.

“Ask us another one!” Little Cassy demanded.

“Ask us!”

“One more.”

“Another!”

Harry rolled onto his back as the litter piled on top of him, demanding that he quiz them on all the stuff they’d need to know when they started training. Harry found it amusing that when they were pups all they wanted to do was learn but by the time they got to the age where they could start training they’d want to do anything but.

“Ask us about the Lycan Wars!” Izzy commanded.

“Or the founding of the coalition.” Cassy suggested, glaring daggers at her sister.

“Ask us! Ask us!” demanded the two boys who were gnawing on the toe of one of Harry’s shoes.

“Fine! Fine.” Harry said trying to shake the two boys off, “just stop using me as a chew toy.”

 The two boys let go as Izzy bounced around his head happily and Cassy made herself comfortable on his lap.

“Ok,” He said sitting up to look down at the four pups, “Um… what are the three different types of wolf speech?”

“The alpha speech!” Matty, the smallest of the four yelled excitedly, tail going at a hundred miles an hour.

“Which means?” Harry asked, bending around to grab Izzy who was attempting to use Harry’s body as cover while she sneaked up on her sister.

“The pack’s alpha can talk to all his wolves at the same time, without the bad guys hearing.” Cassy responded, from her place on Harry’s crossed legs.

“Yes,” Harry replied, dropping Izzy back on the ground next to her brothers, “it means that a pack alpha can talk to any or all members of their pack even if they don’t know where they are. And the other two types of wolf speech?”

“The normal one,” Izzy said, sounding bored.

“Which is?”

“What we’re doing now,” Matty said as if that was the most obvious thing ever.

“Any wolf can communicate with other wolves within a relatively short distance,” Harry expanded as Cassy gave a yawn, “no matter if the recipient is in their wolf form or not.”

“So…” Matty started slowly, “what we’re doing now.”

“Yes, Matthew,” Harry said with a sigh, “what we’re doing now.”

Matty nodded firmly before bending to have a good scratch at one of his ears.

“And what’s the third kind?” Harry looked from one pup to another, waiting for a response which didn’t seem forthcoming, “Anyone?”

None of the pups would meet his eye, as if they were afraid that if they looked at his he’d ask them.

“Ed calls it the love language,” Toby spoke up for the first time.

Harry chuckled. Toby had a habit of sneaking up on the adults and listening to them talk when no one knew he was there. Harry didn’t want to know half the things that the quiet pup had heard.

“Mate speech,” Harry said as all three of the other pups turned their eyes on Toby, “A bonded pair can communicate without anyone else hearing. Some can even do it over long distances. Most can only communicate in words when in each other’s direct presence, and the further away they are the less accurate the communication until it’s just basic feelings and emotions. The stronger the emotion the further it travels, and the stronger the bond the more accurate the communication. That’s why Ed calls it the Love Language, because love is one of the strongest emotions.”

“Ew,” Izzy complained loudly.

“That’s gross,” Matty added as Cassy pretended to vomit.

Harry hid a smile as Toby stared resolutely at his feet, ignoring his siblings.

“Well I think it’s romantic,” Harry replied firmly, to which the pups responded all the more fervently. Harry just watched with a chuckle, before looking up. There was a commotion coming from the other side of the fire, where many were waiting for lunch to cook. The pack members who were in their wolf forms had obviously heard it sometime earlier and were beginning to gather, waiting for whatever it was.

“Careful,” He said to the pups, removing Cassy from his lap, “I’m going to shift.”

The pups backed away slightly, Cassy looking particularly disgruntled at being disturbed. Harry shifted, as quickly as possible while also being careful of where the pups were. Many a wolf had accidently hurt someone when they changed too close to someone, particularly the young and unexperienced.

In his wolf form, Harry herded the pups towards the other children playing nearby, who were supervised by Ruth and Harry’s mother Anne. Neither of them asked questions, having become aware of the commotion themselves in the last couple of minutes.

It was louder now, someone was coming, and they were in a hurry.

A light tawny wolf came dashing through a nearby hedgerow.

Niall.

“Liam,” Harry called across the now gathering crowd, “find Father.”

Liam nodded, disappearing towards the pack house on the far side of the clearing.

Harry pushed through the crowd. When Niall saw him he headed straight for him.

“We’re under attack,” He called when he came within ears shot, “near Chatsworth. Susan sent me for help,” he said skidding to a halt in front of Harry, “They’re outnumbered. Coming from the east.”

“Harry,” Desmond Styles was beside him now, followed by Liam, “stay here and wait for the other patrols to come in, follow once they have. And send word to…”

“I know what to do,” Harry said firmly, “go.”

Desmond nodded. “Everyone of fighting age with me.”

He shifted, while already on the move, heading back the way Niall had come. The crowd moved as one, following their leader.

“Niall, stay,” Harry ordered when he turned to follow, “you can use the time to recover.”

Niall nodded, collapsing back onto the ground and breathing hard.

“Ed, Nicola,” He added as they headed passed, “you too. I need you to go to the other coalition packs, you’re our fastest members.”

The two nodded, exchanged a look, and took off in opposite directions.

Harry waited until most of them had moved off before issuing more orders. The noise of fifty plus wolves going off to battle was quite deafening. Eventually they were far enough away for him to feel himself think again. He turned to those still left, mostly the mothers, children, sick and elderly.

And Gemma.

“I’ll take charge of the those staying behind once you’ve gone,” She said after noticing Harry’s furrowed brow, “You need someone here who can has leadership experience in case this is a trap or a diversion.”

Harry nodded, “Thank you.”

It was one less thing that he’d have to think about. He’d ponder his sister’s sudden disinterest in fighting later. He’d half expected her to be raring to go right up until her delivery date, trying to prove her alpha cred. It was a relief that she was willing to stay behind, even if he’d never tell her that.

“What patrols are out at the moment?” He asked those left behind.

“There’s a hunting party down near the coast,” one said.

“And the other border patrol,” added Ruth, who’d stayed behind to help look after the pups, “they should be back shortly.”

“Right,” Harry nodded his thanks, “then we need someone to go and get the hunting party. There’s no knowing how long it’ll take them to catch something and head back here.”

“I’ll go,” it was one of the trainees that spoke, a small wolf named Jane, “I can track them well enough, and it won’t matter if I tire myself out cause I’m not old enough to be allowed in the fighting.”

Harry nodded, remembering full well what it was like in his last couple of years of training knowing that there was nothing he could do while everyone else was off at war.

“Go.”

She turned and took off into the west and Harry settled in to wait. There were a number of fighting age wolves who had been elsewhere when Niall had shown up, inside one of the houses or where ever, who were appearing now. Coming in dribbles and drabs to gather around the fire. 

 Niall eventually stood up, moving over to Harry and sitting down beside him, “They bloody well came out of nowhere. We thought it was just a border patrol but there were others hidden further up the gully. They circled around behind us while we were talking to the first patrol.”

“Yorkshire and Humber?” Harry asked keeping an eye out for more stragglers.

Niall nodded, still breathing harder than normal.

“They’ve been nibbling at our borders for months,” Harry sighed, “I didn’t think they’d actually risk a full out attack, not with the threat of the coalition coming down on them.”

“Maybe they’re hoping they’ll be able to deal with us quickly and before they arrive,” Niall replied as Gemma walked over to join them, “I think they were hoping they’d be able to take our patrol out and everyone else would be none the wiser.”

“It was a good thing you were with them then,” Gemma commented, “we might be able to nip this in the bud.”

“Perhaps in future we should allocate someone within each patrol who’ll be responsible for getting help if they’re attacked,” Harry mused, as he spotted the other border patrol coming in from the south.

“Mention it to father later,” Gemma suggested, “it’s a good idea, we probably should have been doing that already.”

Harry nodded, as Liam’s father led his patrol straight up to Harry.  

“What’s happened?” He asked, obviously having picked up that something was wrong.

“The other patrol got attacked,” He explained, “grab a drink and catch your breath. As soon as the hunting party gets back we go to join the rest of the pack to see them off.”

He nodded and the patrol dispersed amongst the rest of the small crowd.

“I’m going to get all the kids inside,” Gemma said with a nod towards their mother who was still with the kids and nursing mothers, “Good luck.”

Gemma gave Harry a one armed hug around his big furry neck before jogging away. He was getting antsy: wondering if it wasn’t best to just go now and leave the hunting patrol to guard those staying behind.

“Here they come,” Niall used his nose to point towards the south west.

“Pack to me,” Harry yelled, projecting his voice so even the oncoming hunting patrol could hear him, “You’ve got two minutes, then we move.”

The twenty odd fighters who were left moved away to the side of the clearing. Some saying goodbye to older children or pregnant mates while others grabbed a drink or shifted into their wolf form. The last of those staying behind moved inside.

Jane was the last wolf back with the hunting group. She dropped to the ground, obviously done in by the run. Harry gave her a nod of thanks before moving west.

He kept the pace steady, fighting the urge to sprint flat out, knowing full well that that would mean reaching the battle too tired to fight.  Miles disappeared under their paws as they started up into the peak district. They couldn’t take a direct route, that would have taken them straight through the middle of Stockport, and they had to cross several train tracks, being sure that there was no train nearby to see them. One or two werewolves could be mistaken for large house pets or feral dogs, but a group of their size could be mistake for nothing but a pack of wolves.

They heard the conflict before they saw it. Harry turned them east, running just below the top of a ridge in the hope of surprising the other pack by coming up and over the ridge at the last minute. Harry was counting on the fact that they’d be too focused on the fight to hear them coming.

“Here we go guys,” He said quietly, before turning sharply and putting on a burst of speed to fly up and over the top of the ridge.

The fighting erupted around them as they slammed into the side of the opposing pack.

“Good of you to join us,” Liam yelled, as he ducked in and around an enemy alpha to guard Niall’s flank.

Liam was Harry’s beta, dedicated to guarding his back, but he also knew that not much was a threat to the oversized wolf. He generally chose to keep an eye on Niall whose size and omega status often meant that he got targeted and picked on.

“You’re welcome,” He called back as he crashed into the side of an enemy wolf.

After that there was little time to think, never lone talk. It was chaos. The noise was deafening and the smells confusing. More than once Harry second guessed himself while attacking someone because the scents confused him and had him half convinced they were one of his own pack. It was all teeth, claws and fur as his bloody ran hot and his thoughts blank.

The fresh troops had obviously arrived at the right time. Desmond and the first group of fighters had been massively outnumbered. Harry knew that Susan and Alex, who had been the other members in Niall’s patrol, were probably dead. The fact that the fight was so far away from where they’d been when Niall left them pretty much proved that. Harry had entertained the idea of ordering Niall to stay behind, after getting such a shock and his long run taken at a dead sprint, he was unlikely to be at his best. But he also knew that Niall would feel awful if he didn’t go back for them and they turned out to be dead.

During pack fights there was an unspoken rule that wolves would only kill when it was absolutely necessary. They’d almost gone extinct before due to infighting and no one wanted to see it happen again. So they generally aimed to maim or incapacitate rather than outright kill. However a battle like this was likely to have at least half a dozen deaths, and at least two dozen major injures. But Susan and Alex were almost certainly dead. The other pack would have be trying to keep their movement quiet, and they couldn’t take the risk of one of them getting away, as Niall had, and informing the rest of the pack. Niall had likely saved them a lot of lives by taking off the way he did, even if it went against all his instincts.

Harry’s size meant that more often than not he was faced with more than one wolf at a time. The first ones to come at him was a group of three, all varying shades of brown. They spread out to come at him from three sides. Harry tried backing up to put his back was up against a rocky outcrop, but it wasn’t ideal to fight on so he stopped. Eying each snarling wolf in turn, to decide which would be the best to attack first.

One of them lunged. The one on the right. He was obviously just testing the waters, because he only snapped at his front paws before retreating. As Harry turned to counteract him the opposite wolf lunged, sinking their teeth into the scruff of Harry’s neck. Harry wiped around, using his own body weight to throw the attacking wolf around and into one of the other wolves. Their teeth were yanked out of his neck, taking a large chunk of fur and skin with them.

As the first two wolves staggered to their feet the third attacked, leaping onto Harry’s back from behind. Harry growled as their hind legs dug into his lower back, pulling out clumps of fur as Harry twisted to try and get at them. The other two had recovered and leapt back into the fray. One went for Harry’s front legs as the other went for his throat.

Harry new that unless he put at least one of these guys out of business he was going to be out of business himself. He grunted before ducking his head and summersaulting onto his back. The wolf on his back yowled as they heard a loud crack. Harry hoped it was a rib and not their back. He rolled then, away to one side, leaving the third attacker on his back whining sadly.

The other two had let go when he’d flipped but now came at him again. They moved in sync. Harry was quite impressed by their training even as he wished they’d give up and help their pack mate.

They came in at the same time, from different direction, meaning Harry had to choose, in a split second, which one to put his back too. The turned to his left, choosing to attack rather than stay on the defensive as he’d been doing so far. Harry sprung forward as the one behind him attacked, latching onto his right flank.

Harry did his best to ignore the pain and focus on taking out the one in front of his. He pushed in close, so he could tower over the other wolf, using his bulk to push them back. It made his neck vulnerable but it was a risk he had to take. He shoved forward quickly, making the attacker back up, stumbling over his own feet. The attacked tumbled, going belly up, allowing Harry to dive at his stomach, grab a mouthful of fur and yanking it out by the roots. Skin came away with the fur, tearing along the other wolf’s stomach.

He backed off as the wolf howled. It would be a painful wound but not serious, not if they stopped the bleeding relatively quickly.

Harry twisted around, securing his teeth in the scuff of the wolf still attached to his hind leg and yanking. Again skin came away with the other wolf’s teeth when then refused to let go despite the fact that Harry could probably kill him just by squeezing his much larger jaws around its neck.

Harry tossed them down next to the one with the bleeding stomach. Giving a warning growl before turning and taking off towards another group of fighters.

The fight was spread out, groups of wolves ranging across the countryside. It was lucky it was a cold dreary day otherwise this area would likely be speckled with walkers and tourists wanting to see a pretty view. As it was it was pretty dead, Harry and his current opponent, a pretty almost white she wolf, had only had to dodge one human who had obviously got caught out in the rain and was soaked through. Thankfully said human was more focused in keeping his head down against the rain, which had started coming down half an hour earlier, and getting back to his car then looking around for unusual wild life.

The white wolf was on the retreat, backing back towards the border. Harry was inclined to let her go, aware that she could be drawing him out on purpose. He took another solid swipe at her muzzle. Leaving two bloody gashes in the wake of his claws before stopping dead and letting her go.

Quiet suddenly there was a chorus of howls.

One of the other packs had arrived. Coming to their aid as the coalition guidelines required. They flowed up and over a hill in the distance and spreading out across the countryside. Harry sighed. The other pack obviously wasn’t at anywhere near full strength but it’d likely be enough to finish off the offending pack, the new fighters being fresh and uninjured.

They could focus on mopping up now. Harry glanced around, discovering that he was a fair way from the nearest pack member, the fighting having spread out so much since its onset. Off to his right was a small crop of trees, into which a couple of enemy wolves were running. Harry figured he may as well flush them out. They’d have to do a sweep of the entire area at the end of the fighting anyway and a group of dense trees like that could be the perfect spot for a group of wolves to hide and wait to jump on whoever came sniffing around.

Harry lopped off in the direction of the cluster of flora, becoming aware as he did so that he obviously had damaged his tail rather badly which he hadn’t been aware of before then. Adrenaline and the constant distraction of impending attack meaning that he hadn’t had a chance before now to do a full inventory, but he obviously had a number of injuries, but the tailing appeared to be the worse.

Harry knew this was bad. As soon as he came down from the high of fighting the pain and exhaustion would set in and then he’d be almost useless. He either needed to get into another fight fast or bow out now.

He decided he’d clear out the bunch of trees and then take charge of rounding up their wounded, leaving the mopping up to the reinforcements.

He slowed as he reached the trees, relying on his ears in the quiet patch of woodlands. The undergrowth was thick, so his eyes were almost unusable and a bad scratch across his nose meant that it was blocked with congealed blood. He crouched, despite the fact that he knew his size worked against him when it came to hiding.

There was movement to his right. He twisted around and took off through the undergrowth. There were two of them, they’d obviously been taking stock of their wounds when he came upon them. They didn’t even attempt to fight, just took off towards the border which was still a fair distance off.

Something slammed into him from the side, pushing Harry onto his wounded flank. He grunted, snaking around to try and see the much, much, smaller wolf. She was almost as small as Louis, and Harry greatly doubted she was finished her training.

Harry pushed back to his feet as she started circling him.

“The fighting’s over,” he said tiredly, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” She said as she lunged.

Harry rolled onto his back as she leaped atop him. He’d hoped to use his back legs and her own momentum to throw her off but she was faster than he was. She latched onto his throat, though her teeth weren’t even long enough to penetrate his fur. Harry battered her stomach with his hind legs, but his heart wasn’t in it. She was just a kid.

Suddenly, the weigh was lifted.

“Get off him,”

Harry turned his head and came nose to nose with Louis. He scrambled to his feet as Louis tugged the other wolf across the clearing.

“What are you doing here?” Harry said in shock, “I thought your omegas didn’t fight.”

Louis ignored him as he dumped the other wolf in the dirt.

“What the hell were you thinking?” He snapped at the girl, “He’s three times your size and an alpha. He could shred you.”

“He’s injured and slow,” She insisted, “I could take him, I just needed to keep him off balance.”

“Rubbish,” Louis spat back, “he was going easy on you.”

“Well he can’t take both of us,” she said turning and starting back towards him.

Louis gave her a solid smack across the ear, sending her sprawling in the bracken.

“You’re not even supposed to be out here,” Louis hissed in frustration at the smaller wolf, “wait till your brother finds out.”

“Louis,” She whined, making his name into two long drawn out syllables, “we’ve got a chance to take one of their alphas out.”

“One wolf won’t change the outcome of this,” Louis said firmly, “And it might just get you killed.”

“I wouldn’t…” Harry started forward.

“I know Harry,” Louis replied quickly, not looking away from the pup.

“What are you doing out here,” Harry asked, circling him to check for injuries, “are you hurt.”

“I haven’t been in the fighting,” Louis said with an eye roll, “I just had to come and get this one,” he nodded towards the smaller girl, “who snuck out to fight.”

Harry nodded in relief, “Then you should get out of here, the fighting is pretty much over now, and we’re just rounding up the stragglers. Get her home.”

Louis nodded before turning on the girl, “We’re leaving. Now.”

“But…”

“Don’t fucking test me,” Louis snapped, “You’re already in big enough trouble as it is.”

She hung her head, and Louis nudged her to get her moving.

Louis glanced back, giving him a nod of thanks before going after her and leaving Harry alone.

Harry sighed, aware of all the little injuries currently making themselves known. He turned, limping back to the battle field. Hoping like anything he didn’t come across another enemy wolf. If he did he’d be coming out of this with a lot more than a fractured tailbone.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you can thank the AO3 outage yesterday for denying me fan fiction long enough to make me work on my own.

His father was speaking to the leader of the northern most member of the coalition when Harry finally found him. The other pack were doing a sweep of the general area to make sure all the enemy fighters had fled back across the border.

“Do you know what motivated this attack?” He asked Harry’s father as Harry himself flopped to the ground nearby.

“No, but they’ve been nibbling at our borders for weeks now,” Desmond replied, sounding tired.

The other alpha nodded before looking over Des’ shoulder, “Ah, look who’s finally decided to join the party.”

The southernmost member of the coalition had only sent a small delegation, obviously aware that the northerners would arrive first and that they likely wouldn’t be needed.

Desmond looked behind himself and sighed in relief.

“Take your guys home,” The other alpha said firmly, “we’ll clean up here, and arrange to help transport any wounded back to your dens.”

Des nodded his thanks, “As soon as we get back we’ll send those we left defending our homes to help. They’ll collect our dead.”

“Got any opinion on what to do with their wounded?” He asked as Des walked over to Harry.

Des looked down at Harry expectantly.

“Patch them up and send them home,” Harry replied, quite used to his father’s behaviour, “we don’t need more animosity between us and them.”

Des nodded in agreement, sitting down next to his son, “Take their dead to the border and let them collect them from there. If you find anyone higher up the command chain, we’ll keep them for questioning before we send them home. Otherwise let them have ‘em, we don’t have the food to feed them, nor the energy required to put up with their moaning.”

“I’ll stay,” Harry said, “and come with the first load of wounded. I can’t be bothered getting up just yet.” He tacked on when his father raised an eyebrow.

“Fine,” Des said with a shrug, “there are probably still a few stragglers coming in anyway. I’ll see you back at home.”

Harry nodded and Des turned to those of the pack who were laying or lazing around licking their wounds.

“Lets get back to our dens,” He called to them, “I’m sure we’ll all sleep well tonight.”

“Yes, it’s just that for some it’ll be a permanent sleep,” Ed said darkly, walking up to Harry and sitting down next to him.

“You’re not going with them either?” He asked as the pack move off, going much slower than they had when they’d arrived.

Ed shook his head, “Nah. I imagine there will be quite a few who aren’t. They’ll want to stay to help the injured.”

“Father should be staying,” Harry growled lowly, so only Ed could hear, “he led them into battle, he should be the last to leave.”

Ed nodded but remained silent as the other two pack’s alphas spoke. They spilt, each going to their own fighters, most of who were still uninjured. Harry knew they’d be dividing the duties, some to run a search pattern over the area to ensure all the enemy had returned to their own land, and the rest to start collecting and patching up the injured.

The alpha who had been speaking to his father came over to them after speaking to his pack.

“I’ll send all the wounded who can walk here,” He said firmly, though not unkindly, “and have the rest moved here so they’ll all be in one place. Some of the more able bodied ones should be able to help with the others.”

Harry nodded, “Thank you.”

“You should have your tail looked at,” He added as he turned away, “Find a stick and set it. The longer you leave it the worse it’ll hurt when you finally get around to it.”

The alpha moved away, joining one of the groups and heading off north.

“I’ll find a branch,” Ed stated, “and the others will bring cloth which we can use to bind it when they arrive with the supplies.”

Harry nodded, and Ed jogged away.

The rain had stopped, thankfully, but the sun was beginning its decent. It’d be dark well before the last of the wounded were moved from the battle field.

The wounded came in in dribs and drabs. Ed returned with a stick in his jaws shortly before Liam arrived, relatively unharmed, but supporting a bleeding Niall. The Irishman was in his human form, obviously having been in too much pain to maintain his wolf form. Liam half carried him over to Harry and he then collapsed onto the cold ground next to him. Niall pressed into Harry’s fur, needing the warmth, as Liam looked around.

“How many did we lose?”

Harry shook his head, “I don’t know. At least thirty went with father back to the camp, but you’re some of the first wounded to come in.”

Liam nodded slowly, “We came with what? Eighty?”

Harry nodded silently as Niall’s teeth chattered.

“Thirty went back, and there’s another fifty here,” Liam stated, obviously just thinking out loud, “That’s almost half either wounded or dead.”

“At least we had warning,” Ed pointed out, glancing at Niall, “A lot more would have died if they’d managed to reach our dens.”

“I’m sure that’s a great consolation,” Niall managed to get out between his rattling teeth.

Ed moved to lay on the other side of Niall, so the human had the body heat of two wolves to keep him warm. Harry knew he was likely in shock, and adding hypothermia his blood loss probably wasn’t a good idea.

“I’ll see what I can do to help the others,” Liam said, moving away to help a young alpha clean a nasty wound across one shoulder.

The first of the dead arrived then.

Alex.

He was brought in by one of the southerners.

Harry had the inane thought that it was rather useful that they transformed back into their human forms when they were seriously injured or died. It made them much easier to transport.

Susan wasn’t far behind.

She was alive, but for how much longer Harry wouldn’t have been willing to place any bets. When Liam saw her he had the southern wolf take her straight over to Harry and Niall. The southerner placed her in front of them, on the half frozen ground.

“It’ll snow by midnight, I shouldn’t wonder,” She said idly, as if she wasn’t missing a limb.

Werewolf healing worked fast, in comparison to humans, but it couldn’t work miracles.

Besides the missing arm she had a long slow bleeding scratch across the inside of her right thigh along with dozens of other minor cuts and bruises.

“Are you cold?” Harry asked gently, leaning forward to nudge her good shoulder with his nose.

“Cold?” She asked sounding surprised, “No. Why? Is it cold? That’s not a good sign.”

“No,” Harry responded, “you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“Hmm,” She said back, “And an arm. I suppose it won’t be long now.”

Niall sobbed then, drawing Harry’s attention from the dying woman.

“Oh love,” Susan said docilely, “it’s alright, I’ll hunt with my ancestor’s tonight.”

“I shouldn’t have left you,” Niall got out between sobs as he dragged himself towards her with his good arm, “I shouldn’t have ran.”

“I ordered you to, son,” She responded giving him her surviving hand, “because of you none of the pups were lost.”

Niall shook his head, as Harry pushed back into him. If they didn’t keep him warm he might die yet.

“And we couldn’t afford to lose you,” she said, as if she was commenting on the time of day or when dinner would be ready, “we can’t lose more breeding omegas.”

“It’s not right,” Niall said quietly, “that I should run and live while you fought and die.”

Susan smiled tightly, “It’s exactly right. Right that the young should live while the old die. It’s all that is right.”

Niall bit his lip, trying to stop from making any noise.

“Tell my grandson I love him,” Susan said, laying down on the grass and curling up as if she was going to take a short nap, “and look after him, like you did today.”

“I will. I will, I will. I promise,” Niall sobbed brokenly, clinging to her hand “I will. Susan? Susan I promise. I promise I will.”

“She’s gone Niall,” Ed said gently, rubbing his head against the younger boy’s bare back comfortingly, “Niall man, she’s gone.”

“I promise,” He said as he turned back to Harry and Ed, and burying his face in their fur, “I promise I will.”

 

* * *

 

It did snow.

Gemma arrived with the healers and nurses to help with the wounded shortly after that. They brought needles and thread, blankets, bandages and clothes for those too weak to maintain their wolf forms.

Liam took a load of the wounded back to camp, taking a bundled up Niall with him, the poor omega was in shock, his arm needed setting and they desperately needed to warm him up. A lot more were able to be moved once they had pressure bandages applied, and bones set in splints or slings.

The dead were taken last. Harry figured they wouldn’t mind, and there were those who needed the warmth and comfort of home more. There were eight in total, including Susan. And another three would likely be joining them within the next twenty four hours.

Harry had been told that they’d taken a prisoner, but he hadn’t seen them. They’d been taken straight to the cell at their camp, which was more of a cave then a cell but that’s what it got called. It’d probably be a while before they actually got interrogated, everyone was too done in to want to do much besides go to bed. Harry made a note to check the guard schedule and make sure no one too close to those who’d died were on it. The last thing they needed was a prisoner getting murdered by someone looking for revenge.

It was passed midnight by the time the dead were transported home. Even those who hadn’t fought were tired by then. The alpha woman who had led the southerners had spoken to a representative of the Yorkshire and Humber pack and they’d arranged a spot for them to collect their dead. They stayed behind late to help transport them to said spot. Harry had the feeling that she felt bad about not turning up until after the fighting ended and so was trying to do as much of the clean up as possible.

Harry stayed to the last.

Gemma had set his tail as soon as she’d gotten there, and the rest of his wounds had stopped bleeding by then anyway. He was going to have a nasty scar on his right shoulder but the rest would likely close up well enough. And after that he’d gone out himself, helping to carry the wounded, as he wasn’t much help with patching them up in his wolf form.

He wasn’t game to change back, knowing that a broken tail in his wolf form would translate to a broken tailbone in his human. It had happened to Ed once when he fell down the stairs and landed on his bum, and according to him it was the most painful injuries of his life. Every move hurt. Sitting was horrible. It was impossible to lay on his back. And even laying on your stomach hurt whenever you moved. At least as a wolf he could move without it hurting as the break was in a limb not inside the torso.

Harry had lugged the injured back to camp, or the border, for hours. And then finally when they ran out of wounded he helped move the dead. Until finally, at half passed one, he walked up onto the veranda of his mums place and collapsed, going straight to sleep without a second thought.

He woke thirteen hours later, and even then only because his mother poked him awake.

“I’ve pulled the mattress off the extra bed and put it up in the attic,” She said gently nudging him to his feet, “You can sleep up there tonight, if you don’t want to change back.”

Harry nodded, pushing to his feet, “Thanks Mum. How is everyone?”

“Niall’s better than he was last night, but still not great,” She replied as he wiped at his eyes with a rather dirty paw, “Ed hasn’t gotten sick of Gemma’s clinginess yet, but give it a few more hours and I imagine he will have. And Liam, well he’s in his element, handling everything while everyone else recovers. He’s out with a patrol remarking the borders along the length of the battle field right now.”

“And the families of those we lost?” Harry asked as he followed his mother down the steps to the camp fire where there was almost always food available.

“About as well as you would imagine,” She replied sadly, “They’re finding comfort with each other.”

Harry nodded again, “I’m starving.”

“Well you would be, wouldn’t you,” Anne said with a fond shake of her head, “but you need to bath first so I can clean up those cuts. There’s not much we can do about that shoulder, you’ve lost too much skin, but a couple of the others should be closed up.”

Harry sighed, looking down at his mud caked feet.

“Go on, off you go,” Anne said firmly, “I’ll find you some food while you head down to the creek.”

Harry cringed before doing as he was told. The creek was as icy as he’d imagined, but he wasn’t the only one there. A number of other were rinsing off. Most had shower or baths in their homes but there were a number who found it easier to move in their wolf form, most because they had a fractured or broken hind leg. They didn’t have enough crutches to go round so those who could were staying in their wolf forms so they could walk without aid.

The water really was freezing, making Harry want to get it over with as fast as possible. However he knew that once his wounds were dressed he probably wouldn’t be able to get them wet, and bathing in wolf form while not getting multiple points on his body wet would be borderline impossible. So he took his time, making sure his mother wasn’t going to send him back because he failed to wash between he toes or something similar.

Ruth was there with her pups and helped him dry off so he didn’t instantly get grass and dirt stuck to his freshly cleaned fur. The pups had to be warned numerous times not to practice their pouncing on his tail but Harry couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed.

His mother was waiting by the fire with her medical kit and a leg of venison.

“I assume that’ll keep you still long enough for me to sew up that gash on your stomach,” She said, threading her needle and sitting down in front of him.  

Harry nodded obediently. Focusing on how hungry he was in order to distract from the sting of the needle going in and out and the burn when the skin pulled together over muscle that had been open to air for almost a day. Once she was done with his numerous cuts she moved on to placing a dressing over his shoulder wound and putting a dry splint on his tail.

“Ok, I think I’ve done all I can,” She said as Harry was gnawing on the bone, “but if you tear any of those stitches so help me young man.”

Harry nodded.

“I’m serious Harold,” She said sharply, “don’t think I’ve forgotten your fifteenth birthday.”

“What happened on his fifteenth?” Ed asked, appearing at his shoulder.

“We don’t talk about that,” Harry said quickly before his mother had a chance to offer any embarrassing information, “How’d you lose Gemma?”

“Morning sickness,” Ed replied with a blissed out smile, “I never thought I’d owe my freedom to morning sickness.”

Anne chuckled, “I better go see how she is. Harry you should get some rest, it’ll help you heal faster.”

“Yes Mum,” Harry said as she walked away, “later. I need to check the schedule for guards on the prisoner. Make sure we don’t have anyone who’s lost someone on there.”

“I’ll come,” Ed agreed, pushing upright and following the alpha, “with the way Gemma’s behaving anyone would think I was the one pregnant.”

“As much as I appreciate your plight mate,” Harry said with a chuckle, “I have to say that I’m not sure I could do what she did yesterday.”

Ed gave him a look.

“And by that I mean that I physically couldn’t cause you know… no uterus.”

“I hate you.”

Harry laughed longer and louder then was probably appropriate for such a bad joke.

All schedules were posted on the message board next to the pack house front door.  Usually it would be the pack alpha’s mate’s job to keep the schedules, and other such housekeeping jobs, running smoothly. But Desmond and Anne had broken their bond when Harry was only a child and Harry’s father had not taken another mate. Gemma had taken over for a while, until she took a mate her father didn’t approve of and then Harry had started doing it. Desmond said it was good training. The truth was Des had always hated book work and would go out of his way to make sure he didn’t have to do it himself.

Harry always had a guard schedule draw up in case they were needed, but he’d written it months ago, before he knew what they’d need it for. As he suspected there were a number of people on it who had lost close family and friends in the last day, and a couple more who had been lost themselves. There were also a number of people who were too badly injured to be much good as guards.

“Ed, would you mind taking over from Abigail on guard duty?” He asked the red head, “Alex was meant to be relieving her.”

Ed smiled sadly, “Yeah sure, I’ll just run to the loo.”

“Thanks Ed,” He replied as the omega ducked inside, “Now I’ve got the ultra-fun job of creating a new schedule.”

 

* * *

 

Louis sighed, trying to find a position that was actually comfortable, but like always when he was trying to sleep but wasn’t actually tired, no position stayed comfortable for very long.

It was cold in the den, but there were blankets on the floor and a decent sized bowl for water along with a bedpan to piss in. Louis had seen the inside of his own packs cells and knew that things could be a lot worse. At least in here he had the room to shift into his wolf form if need be.

And at least Safaa got away.

Course, if it wasn’t for her he wouldn’t be in this situation at all. And worse, she was the only one who knew where he was, but if she told anyone what had happen her brother and father would skin her. So Louis wasn’t holding his breath for help to come anytime soon. After all, he wouldn’t want to cross Yaser Malik.

He was in his human form at that moment. They’d demanded that he shift when they’d first caught him. He’d never been particularly comfortable with nudity, but he’d had little choice, and he’d only been naked for a short time at least. Though the jumper they’d given him was itchy as hell. They probably didn’t want him to be able to use his heightened wolf senses in order to keep him confused.

And it had worked. 

He wasn’t even sure which pack this was. The wolves that had taken him had an unfamiliar scent, which meant they were a pack with which his own didn’t share a border. Louis assumed they were the southernmost member of the coalition, the west midlands pack. However they hadn’t taken him south, which meant he’d been handed over to one of the other packs.

What confused him the most, was the ever changing accents of his guards. The one guarding him now sounded like she could be from Chester, but the one before that had been an easterner. And there had been a number of others over the last fifteen hours or so. Though most had only said half a dozen words to the guard they were relieving, one who sounded like they were from Manchester had been quite venomous. Louis figured he’d lost someone in the battle. He didn’t blame them.

Louis supposed it was possible that the coalition had a joint camp of some sort, and that it was members of all the coalition packs guarding him. That didn’t explain why his current guard was Irish though.

It was obviously late in the day by now, the shadows were getting long and the chill had crept back in. It had snowed overnight, but barely long enough for any of it to settle on the ground. It just made the earth soggier then the rain the previous day already had. The cave was damp. But much of the ground was stone rather than dirt so that was something. At least he wasn’t laying in mud.

Someone was coming, someone in their wolf form. Louis supposed it was about time the guard changed.

He assumed they’d question him eventually, or else ransom him. He’d be worth at least a few good sized deer, or maybe they’d demand that Louis’ pack give back some of the lands that had been taken from them over the last few months. It’d be a tough sell to him father. His omega son in exchange for the lands which they needed to feed their expanding population. Louis honestly wasn’t sure which way he’d swing with that one. Though he supposed that it’d take a strong man to stand up against both his mother and her four girls.

“Oh thank god,” The Irishman exclaimed, “I’ve needed to piss for the last hour.”

The wolf gave one of the wheezing noises which passed for a laugh in their wolf form.

“How are you doin?”

Louis suppressed a sigh, of course he’d be here. Of bloody course. Cause it wasn’t enough for him to have to be bored out of his mind for hours on end, the bloody most annoying alpha in the country had to come be his gaoler. Fa-bloody-tastic.

“Feeling like my bladder is about to explode is a pretty good distraction,” the Irish voice responded.

Harry snorted, “Go relieve yourself, and then go grab some food. The southern pack hunted for us, I think they feel bad about showing up late yesterday.”

“I’ll never turn down free food,” he replied half-heartedly, “but I’m meant to be on for the next half an hour.”

“I know but I’ve brought the prisoners dinner and extra blankets,” Harry stated in his usual slow manner, “so I don’t mind covering until Nicola gets here. I need something to do to distract from my shoulder.”

“Well I’m not complaining. You want me to unlock it for you? I’ll have to lock you in afterwards but if Nicola will be here in half an hour I’m sure you can make friends.” There was a cheeky note in his voice and Louis had to wonder what he was implying.

There was a jingle at the door as it was unlocked. It squealed as it opened, attesting to the fact that it wasn’t used all that often. And the large dark wolf appeared in the doorway. In Louis’ wolf form Harry appeared large, but in his human form the alpha was intimidatingly big. Louis had to resist as every nerve in his body demand he shift so as to lessen the threat presented by the alpha as he entered the cell.

“Harry,” Louis said flatly, hiding his discomfort.

“Louis,” Harry replied before turning back to the door, “Thanks Niall.”

“Have fun,” The Irishman replied before shoving the door shut and locking it.

Harry had a bag hanging from his jaws, which he dropped in Louis’ lap before backing up several steps.

“So…” Harry started slowly, “I suppose I should have escorted you back to the border yesterday, like I have before.”

Louis huffed, “Oh yeah cause that would have been explainable when those wolves showed up.”

Harry shook his head as Louis unzipped the bag, “The girl with you was just a pup, we don’t hurt pups. She would have been the perfect excuse.”

Louis glanced up at him, wondering if he actually felt bad about Louis getting captured. Even though it was his own pack who’d done the capturing, and Louis’ who had attacked them.

Harry sat down in front of Louis, who was sitting on the supplied blanket and leaning back against the damp wall.

“I brought soup and tea,” Harry continued, laying down further so as to appear as unintimidating as possible, “and another blanket. I know how damp it can get in here. I would have brought more but I didn’t know…”

“Didn’t know it was me?” Louis demanded glaring at the alpha, “So if it was another wolf you’d care less?”

“Honestly… yes,” Harry admitted as if there was nothing shameful about that, “They said they’d caught someone high up the hierarchy. I figured it’d be some angry alpha who’d just been through a battle, not an omega who wasn’t even allowed to fight. Obviously the west midlands wolves didn’t know that omegas in your pack aren’t fighters.”

“We can fight,” Louis snapped, pulling the blanket out of the bag and wrapping it around his shoulders, “we just don’t. Someone has to stay home and protect those who can’t fight.”

“Ok, sorry,” Harry said gently, leaning forward to bump his nose against Louis’ knee, “I worded that badly.”

Louis scoffed, before pulling out the two thermoses.

“I thought you could use something hot,” He said shuffling forward slightly, “from now on you’ll get regular meals, and I’m sorry you didn’t before now. Things have been a little slap dash today, as you can imagine.”

“What do you plan on doing with me?” Louis asked ignoring what the wolf had just said.

“My father wants to question you,” Harry replied sounding apologetic, “Find out why your pack attacked us.”

Louis didn’t really think that anything he could tell them would do any damage but he wasn’t going to make it easy for them either.

Louis laughed instead, “Too bad they ended up with me and not someone actually within the packs power structure.”

Harry nodded again before laying his head on his front paws, “They just knew that you were the pack alpha’s son. They assumed that meant you’d be in the know.”

Louis couldn’t stop himself from snorting at that, “Yeah well, I suppose in any other pack it would.”

“I’m sure your family will offer terms within the next couple of days,” Harry offered, bumping Louis’ knee with his nose again, “You shouldn’t be here long.”

“That’s oh so comforting,” Louis said with a roll of his eyes, “I can’t wait to find out how much they think I’m worth.”

“But it won’t be how much they think you’re worth,” Harry pointed out quickly, “It’ll be how much my father thinks your worth, he’s the one who has to agree to the terms.”

“Well considering the fact that your father think’s I’ve some place of importance within my pack, when I don’t, he’ll expect a lot more then they’ll be willing to give,” Louis spat back at him.

Harry whined, crawling forward to rub against Louis leg, “I’ll tell him, I’ll make sure he knows that he’s made a mistake.”

“Knows I’m not worth as much as he thinks,” Louis replied, trying to push him away.

“Knows that you don’t know anything useful and therefore should be given back so we don’t have to spend time guarding you,” Harry responded quickly, licking at one of his hands.

“Oh so I’m not even worth guarding?”

Harry just whined some more, standing and pushing at Louis until he was forced to move so Harry could wrap himself around the human. By the time he settled Louis was leaning against Harry’s stomach, with his hind quarters on one side and his head and forelegs on the other. Harry then deposited his head in Louis’ lap.

“You’re a pushy, entitled, pain in my arse. You know that?” Louis said in exasperation, before sighing and leaning back into the wolf.

Harry yelped, flinching away from the boy.

“What…?” Louis shot back up right, turning to look down at wolf.

It was then that Louis saw the long gash running along Harry stomach, with its close, neat, stiches.

“Why’d you bloody lay like that if you’re hurt?” Louis asked in exasperation, “You bloody idiot.”

Harry just whined again as Louis rearranged himself so he was leaning against Harry’s chest rather than his stomach.

“I don’t suppose you’ve got any cracked ribs I should know about?” Louis asked before leaning back.

Harry just let his head settle back on Louis’ lap which Louis took as a no. He lent back again, this time allowing himself to sink into the warm curly fur, feeling warm for the first time in the last twenty-four hours. The position he was in meant that he had basically nowhere to put his left hand except either on top of Harry’s head or across his obviously damaged shoulder. Harry had been the one who’d pushed his way into this position so Louis figured he’d have to put up with Louis’ hand on his head.

Louis hadn’t realised until than just how long Harry’s fur was. Louis wondered idle, running his fingers through it, how big he actually was, and how much of it was just fur. Harry’s splinted tail waved a couple of times, as if he wanted to wag it before realising that that would probably be painful in its current state. Harry settled it back on the ground, letting his eyes close as Louis relaxed.

This must be what it’s like to have a dog, Louis thought idly, thinking that despite all the jokes his friends made about house pets it didn’t seem so bad. 

 

* * *

 

Harry hadn’t planned on falling asleep, but obviously at some point he had. The deep breathing coming from the boy who was using him as a pillow told him that Louis was also asleep.

Either Niall had failed to tell Nicola that he was in there or else Nicola had decided that he’d tell her when he wanted to come out. It was night, that was obvious, and it must be late enough that the guard had changed again cause it was Abigail’s scent he could smell now.

Harry looked around distractedly, eyelids already beginning to slide closed again. He wasn’t about to wake the omega up. Nor did he feel like moving. So he let himself drift off again, figuring that at some point someone would bring Louis’ breakfast and let him out.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been exactly a year since I published the original one shot that this grew out of. I should be updating once a month from now on.

“Hazza,” A voice called, dragging the word out slowly, “Baby brother, rise and shine!”

There was a giggle at the door as it unlocked. Louis instinct was to move and put some distance between himself and the alpha who was obviously about to become the butt of a joke. However, while he was looking to try to extract himself from the alpha, the cell door swung open. An average height girl with ombre hair and dark eyes stood in the doorway, smirk firmly in place as she stared down at them.

“Wakey, wakey little brother,” She sang, moving into the cell.

She had a plate of food in her hands, resting gently atop a newly emerged baby bump.

Harry grumbled, tucking his head more firmly into Louis’ stomach.

“Ups-a-daisy Hazzah,” She continued, placing the plate on a rock next to the door as she nudged Harry’s rump with the toe of her boot, “Mum wants to check your stitches. Should I tell her to come here?”

Harry finally raised his head, growling half-heartedly at the girl who was apparently his sister, who squatted down in front of them.

She grinned, dimples on full display, “I’m sure she’d love to know where you spent the night.”

Harry grumbled again before finding his feet, jostling Louis as he did so.

Louis stared at her in shock. At this close range he could smell her, even while in his human form.

“You’re an alpha!” He blurted, making both her and Harry stare at him.

“Yeah, so’s he,” she said seriously, pointing at Harry, “What’s your point?”

“But you’re pregnant,” Louis said inanely.

“Indeed.”

“But…” Louis started, attempting to stop himself from blushing as he looked backwards and forwards between the siblings in confusion, “Was it an accident?”

“Pfft, no,” Gemma scoffed, idly scratching Harry’s ears to the obvious pleasure of the alpha.

Louis continued to look confused, trying to get his head around the idea of an alpha, particularly one so close to the pack alpha, being willing to be the one to bear children rather than going off to fight.

“Is your mate not able?” He blurting without thinking, knowing even as the question left his mouth that it was a mistake.

Her growl was in such contrast to Harry’s earlier one, and not just because she was in her human form. Louis flinched away, making himself as small as possible and pressing back against the wall.

“You dare…” She started, advancing aggressively.

Suddenly the wolf was between them, standing protectively over him and blocking his sister’s advance.  There was no aggression in his stance, but he certainly wasn’t going to move for her either.

“Don’t Gem,” Harry warned, “it’s not his fault. His pack treats omegas differently.”

“He just…”

“I know Gem. But how is he supposed to know we’d find it offensive when that’s how he’s always been treated?” Harry said gently but firmly, “Been told that it’s normal?”

Gemma growled again before turning away and stalk out, “Mum wants to see you.”

Harry sighed, turning back to look down at the boy. He stepped forward, licking at the side of Louis’ face.

“Get off,” Louis said half-heartedly, waving his arms at him.

Harry just whined and insisted on continuing to clean his face until Louis was sure his fringe must be standing on end.

“I’m sorry about her,” Harry said, rubbing the top of his head against Louis’ shoulder, “she’s a bit sensitive at the moment, and she’s very protective of Ed, particularly now after the fight.”

“Is she… Is her mate not an omega?” Louis asked, still trying to figure it out.

Harry shook his head, “Nah that’s not it, he’s the ginger omega that you met that time you crossed the border to protect your little sister.”

Louis remembered.

“Truth be told I think they wanted her to do it as a way of sticking it to Dad,” Harry said laying down in front of Louis and placing his chin on Louis’ knee, “You should eat your food.”

Louis reached over, grabbing the plate. It was just scrambled eggs on a piece of toast. It was a little cold now but Louis was still grateful for solid food. He’d woken during the night and had a mug full of the soup Harry had brought the day before, but liquid food never really made anyone feel particularly full.

“Weren’t you going?” Louis asked, around a mouthful of soggy toast.

“Well seeing as you pissed the guard off I have to stay until someone else comes to lock you in,” Harry replied with a half shrug.

“I still don’t understand,” Louis said after a few moments of silence, “Why would an alpha…. Why would an alpha lower themselves to that?”

“It’s not… they’re not,” Harry sighed, sitting up and focusing on what he was saying, “Carrying a child isn’t lowering yourself Lou. We don’t look down on people who bear children. You’re not less than anyone else just because you’ve got a uterus.”  

Louis frowned, taking another mouthful to give himself time to think.

“But…” Louis started eventually, “you can’t fight if you’re pregnant.”

Harry shrugged, “I suppose it’s not as big a deal for us cause our omegas fight as much as our alphas. I mean it’s still relatively rare, cause female alphas and male omegas are in the minority, and so the chances of them then mating with each other is fairly low but still. We usually get a pregnant alpha every couple of years.

Louis shook his head, the idea of any of the alphas he knew deciding to give birth rather than making their mates do it seemed absurd.

“One of my sisters is a female alpha,” he said offhandedly, instead of voicing his disbelief again.

“The one I met smelled like a beta…”

“I’ve got more than one sister,” Louis said with an eye role.

“Well you’ve met my one and only,” Harry joked, yawning and showing off all his teeth before his ears perked up and he looked over his shoulder, “Oh here comes Jack. I should go, but I’ll check on you tonight. Let me know if there’s anything I can get you, and just bang on the door and tell someone if you need the bed pan emptied.”

Harry bumped his head against Louis’ shoulder again as a young male appeared in the doorway. Harry turned, nodding a greeting to the boy and starting to walk out.

“I’d love a jumper that isn’t itchy as hell,” Louis blurted impulsively.

Harry turned back, standing still and looking at him for a moment before bouncing forward and licking a strip up the side of Louis’ neck and face.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

 

* * *

 

“Have you heard anything from the Yorkshire and Humber pack?” Harry asked trotting to catch up to his father who was heading up the porch stairs into the pack house, “Offering a ransom or anything for Louis?”

“I take it ‘Louis’ is the name of the omega we’ve taken prisoner,” Des replied over his shoulder, as Harry was forced to stop and wait for him to enter before entering himself.

“Yes, Louis Tomlinson,” Harry replied as they headed into his father’s study, “he’s their pack alpha’s son.”

“I haven’t heard anything,” Des replied flippantly, “I’ll send Geoff with terms if I haven’t heard anything by the end of the week. We don’t need him stinking up the camp longer than that but I haven’t had a chance to interrogate him yet anyway. ”

“I’ve spoken to him,” Harry jumped in quickly, not liking the sound of the word ‘interrogate,’ “I think they made a mistake picking him to keep as the prisoner.”

“You just told me that he’s the son of their pack alpha,” Des stated as if Harry was an idiot.

“He’s an omega,” Harry replied back in the same tone.

His father scoffed, “I’d love for your Mother to hear you say that. I thought I raised you better.”

Harry bristled, “Don’t try and turn this back on me. I’m not being a bigot. You’re the one who disinherited your own daughter for mating with an outsider.”

“Careful,” Des growled, “Doing that is what put you in your position to begin with.”

“If you think for one minute that I wouldn’t trade my place as future pack alpha for my sister’s right to be acknowledged as part of this family, you’re deluded,” Harry hissed back, fur standing up.

“Your sister is not what you came here to talk about,” Des stated, waving his hand dismissively, “we were talking about the prisoner.”

“During the battle did you notice something about the wolves we were fighting?” Harry asked, attempting to calm himself and refocus on Louis’ plight.

“I noticed they all stunk to high heaven,” Des shrugged as he sat down behind his desk, “other than that.  All I cared about was defeating them.”

Harry wondered what all the papers were on the desk, considering he claimed to hate paper work and made Harry do most of it.

“None of them were omegas,” Harry answered his own question, “because their omegas don’t fight.”

“Well that can’t be true seeing as our prisoner is an omega,” Des said with a laugh.

“He didn’t fight. He wasn’t in the battle,” Harry insisted, well aware of how difficult it could be to make his father change his mind.

“Then what was he doing on this side of the boarder?”

“He was retrieving a pup who’d snuck out to try and join the battle,” Harry explained, forcing himself to speak coolly.

“And we only have his word for that,” Des replied, leaning back in his chair and swinging around to look out the window, “He’d say anything to convince us he doesn’t know anything.”

“Except no,” Harry said, shaking his large, furry head, “He pulled said pup off me.”

Des swung back to stare at him, “You’ve met this omega before.”

“Yes, a couple of times, at border skirmishes and the likes,” Harry replied honestly.

“What, so they allow omegas on border patrol, do they?” He asked sarcastically.

Harry growled, “Well maybe they’re aware of the fact that border patrols are far less dangerous then going to battle.”

“Enough,” Des snapped, “I don’t for a minute believe that he knows nothing. Nor do I accept your biased opinion about the Yorkshire and Humber pack. I have seen no proof that they’re sexist or prejudiced against omegas. I’ll question him tomorrow, and we’ll find out the truth.”

Harry growled, pissed that his father would attempt to flip the conversation around and make him look like the bigoted one. He turned, starting to stalk out of the room.

“I want you out with the hunting patrol tonight,” Des called after him, “we need to stop relying on the other packs’ charity.”

 

* * *

 

The door rattled in that way that was becoming all too familiar. The cell door screeched open and a bottle blond omega boy appeared in the doorway.

“Hello.”

It was the same Irishman from the night before, just this was the first time Louis had actually seen him in human form.

“I brought you dinner.”

The boy stepped into the cell, carrying a streaming plate, another bag and a pillow.

“Harry wanted to come himself but he’s tired up dealing with pack business,” Niall continued, walking forward and pulling the door closed behind himself, “I’m Niall.”

“Louis,” He replied, watching carefully as the blond dropped onto the floor in front of him, “You were there that time we had a confrontation at the border.”

Niall nodded, handing the plate of food over. This time it was pasta, with some kinda of a cheesy sauce and spotted with little bits of broccoli.

“Anne wants to know if there’s any sort of food you don’t like so she can avoid it,” Niall stated as he looked around the cave.

“Who’s Anne?” Louis asked, confused as to why anyone would care about his food preferences. He’d half expected them to give him bread and butter.

“Harry’s mother,”

And suddenly everything made sense again.

“Well I see where Harry get it,” Louis said dryly.

Niall laughed, “Tell me about it. Harry wanted me to give you the pillow, and this.”

He handed over the bag. It was the same bag as the day before, Harry had taken it when he left that morning. In it was a hoodie, a pair of sweat pants and some fuzzy socks. All of which smelt strongly of Harry despite obviously having been washed.

“Most of its Harry’s old stuff,” Niall pointed out the obvious, “Anne said she hopes you don’t mind, she can find other stuff if wearing an alpha’s clothes makes you uncomfortable. I expect the socks will come half way up your leg but they’ll be warm.”

Louis pulled out one of said socks and held it up. It was navy blue with bright orange polka dots, and it was easily as long as Louis’ forearm. He raised his eyebrows at the other boy.

Niall grinned and nodded, “Yep, those are definitely Harry’s. I promise his fashion sense has improved somewhat in recent years.”

Louis let himself chuckle.

“So is there?” Niall asked.

“Is there what?”

“Anything you don’t eat.”

“Oh,” Louis said, somewhat unintelligently, “nah, I’ve got four younger sisters, you kinda get over your food preferences pretty fast when you never get a say.”

Niall smiled and nodded, “I’ll let her know.”

Niall sat there quietly while Louis ate. Louis assumed he was waiting to get the empty plate back, he couldn’t think of any other reason he’d stick around.

Suddenly he asked seriously, “Have any of the alphas bothered you?” 

“What?”

“Have any of the alphas bothered you?”

“You mean apart from Harry?” Louis sniped back before seeing the look on the other boy’s face and realising just how dead serious he was, “No, not really. Why?”

Niall shook his head, staying quiet for a moment, “Well… you know… captive enemy omega, who nobody trusts. Alpha guards who think they can get away with shit because they’ll be believed while the prisoner isn’t.”

It had crossed Louis’ mind, but the fact that an omega from the same pack believe it could happen made it a lot scarier.

“Has it happened before?”

Niall nodded, “They’ve done a good job of clamping down on alphas abusing their physical power but there are still a number of bad eggs. Hopefully they’re too scared of losing their position within the pack to do anything, but you never know.”

Louis bit his lip, “How long ago did you last have an issue?”

“Last time I was in this room actually.”

“Wait…” Louis frowned in confusion, “Last time you were… It was you?”

Niall nodded calmly, “It didn’t get far before Gemma and one of her girlfriends interrupted, but he tried.”

“What happened to him?” Louis asked, still in shock that the omega would be comfortable sitting in this room with him.

“He’s gone now,” Niall shrugged, “He miss calculated. The pack needed omegas more than they needed alphas at that point, so they kicked him out.”

“What do you mean?” Louis inquired, “Needed omegas?”

Niall frowned, looking confused, “Did it not reach your pack?”

“Did what reach us?”

“The epidemic of 2006?”

Louis frowned around his final mouthful of pasta, “Epidemic? We didn’t have an epidemic, at least not that I know of. I would have been, what? Thirteen or fourteen at the time?”

“It’s why the coalition formed to begin with,” Niall explained, running his fingers through his hair, “because they’d lost so many wolves.”

“So they needed omegas to get their population back up?” Louis assumed, “and the coalition to protect them until they did.”

Niall nodded, “And because the disease, whatever it was, hit the breeding omegas and the pups the hardest. They lost almost three quarters of the pups under five, and half the pregnant or nursing mothers. Harry lost both of his litter mates.”

“Shit. Is that why you were their prisoner?” Louis asked, wondering if this was the omegas way of reaching out in the hope of getting out himself, “Because they needed omegas?”

“Oh! God no,” Niall laughed in shock, “I was chased out of my old pack. I was a loner for about a year before I got picked up by them. I stayed in here for the first week or so before the pack voted to allow me to join them.”

“So you chose to join them?”

Niall nodded, “Better than being a loner. I mean, how many loners do you know who are omegas?”

Louis knew what he meant. Omega loners didn’t last long. They were either raped and killed or raped and force mated.

“They’re pretty good really,” Niall added with a shrug, “They don’t see male omegas as dirty or freaks or whatever.”

Louis’ forehead creased as he placed the empty plate on the floor between them, “Your old pack didn’t like male omegas?”

Niall shook his head, playing with a small rock he’d picked up off the floor, “Nah, they had very strict ideas of masculinity. Thought that only female could have children and therefore male omegas were a freak of nature or must have some chromosomal issue or something. They don’t seem to have an issue with female alphas though.”

“Shit I’m sorry,” Louis said, trying to get his head around that, “You don’t have to talk about this, if you don’t want to. I shouldn’t have pried.”

Niall shook his head, looking up at Louis, “Nah it’s alright. Just… If any of the alphas, or anyone else, bothers you, in any way, you can tell me. Or Harry, he’d stop it. We’ll believe you. Promise.”

Louis couldn’t help but smile then, knowing that he wasn’t completely on his own, that someone was willing to trust him despite him being the enemy.

“Thanks Niall.”

“I mean I don’t think anything will happen,” Niall added on quickly, “but still. Harry’s already moved anyone off the guard roster that he thinks might try to get revenge for their dead loved ones or what not.”

Louis nodded, that explained why, after that first night, there hadn’t been anyone yelling abuse at him.

“Well, thank you,” He repeated, “and say ‘thanks’ to Harry and Anne too, for the food and clothes and what not.”

Niall nodded back, starting to stand up and taking the empty plate with him.

“Keep the bag for the spare cloths,” Niall said, “and let us know if you need anything. I’ll see you later.”

 

* * *

 

Harry paced restlessly. He didn’t like feeling helpless. He didn’t like not being able to help. And he really, really didn’t like the situation he’d found himself in.

He was pacing backwards and forwards across the pack house porch. Liam and Niall were sitting on the railing watching him get more and more agitated. Niall had run to get Harry as soon as the extra guards had shown up to escort Louis to the pack house.

He was inside now, down in the cellar along with Des Styles and two of the other senior alphas. The cellar was sound proofed and had been used as the pack cell back when Des himself was a pup. However they’d moved it after another pack had set the house on fire after rescuing a prisoner held there. They’d decided it wasn’t too smart to house prisoners in the same place at the future leaders of the pack after one of Des’ littermates had died of smoke inhalation.

It was still used for interrogations however, due to its soundproofing and size.

“Calm down man,” Liam suggested for the fourth time in the last forty five minutes, “there’s nothing you can do so sit down and have a beer.”

“I don’t even like beer,” Harry replied without really paying attention, “Not to mention I couldn’t hold a can in this form anyway.”

“Come on Liam,” Niall said shaking his head at the older boy, “you can understand why he’s worried, considering the state that some prisoners have been in when they came out of that cellar.”

Liam cringed, “Sorry mate, I forgot you’ve been through it.”

Niall just shook his head dismissively, “I wasn’t thinking of me but yeah, there’s that. Sorry Haz but your father isn’t exactly the most gently, or charitable, of souls.”

Harry hardly glanced up, “Exactly why I’m out here and not in there.”

“You should have played the alpha in training card,” Liam suggested as Harry turned and started back the other way.

“I tried,” Harry replied, “He told me I was too close to the situation to be unbiased.”

“Well at least I’m not the only one who thinks there’s something going on there,” Niall said under his breathe.

However, Harry was in his wolf form and so heard every word.

“You’d prefer that I remain detached?” He demanded getting up in Niall’s face.

“God no,” Niall replied with a snort, “get as attached as you like. Remember that I was an outsider too once. I’m just saying,” Niall shrugged, “there’s something there.”

Harry growled before resuming his pacing.

“Well he’s not denying it,” Liam pointed out, making Niall grin.

“That’d really piss your father off,” Niall said gleefully, “ending up with both his options for future pack alpha mating off with outsiders.”

Harry just rolled his eyes and kept going, knowing full well they were just trying to distract him.

“It’s not like he can disinherit you as well.” Liam laughed, “He’ll run out of children.”

“And frankly, he’s such an annoying git that there’s little chance of him ever landing another mate,” Niall added, “He was lucky to land the first one, considering how awesome your mother is.”

“And how hot.”

Harry couldn’t help but growl at that. It was an old joke. Harry’s alpha mates and some of the other boys had been commenting on how hot his mother was since he was old enough to know what that meant.

“How the hell did that happen to begin with?” Niall wondered aloud, “She’s so nice and he’s…”

“Not.”

“Well I wasn’t going to say that…” Niall replied, even though he’s just called him a git, “but yeah.”

“Well they were very young,” Harry said, as he stared back towards them, “Mum was barely sixteen. And he was the future pack alpha, it’d probably be hard to say no to that.”

“Louis certainly doesn’t have any issue saying no,” Niall jabbed.

This got Harry’s attention, as he was sure was the intention.

“What’d he say?” He asked, actually stopping his pacing for a moment.

“Just that you’re an annoying alpha,” Niall shrugged, “always pushing in and being entitled.”

Harry gave an involuntary whine, turning to look towards the door through which he’d last seen Louis.

“Don’t be mean,” Liam said giving Niall a shove.

“I’m teasing,” Niall asserted, reaching out to give Harry’s ears a scratch, “He just made a joke about you being annoying. But he was joking, and seemed genuinely grateful about you looking out for him.”

Harry was still concerned, he hated the idea that he might have annoyed the boy or made him uncomfortable.

“It was a joke Harry,” Niall insisted again, “omegas joke with each other about alphas. It just a thing that we do.”

“They do,” Liam agreed, “my sister and the other pack mums do it all the time when they’re minding the pups.”

“That doesn’t really make me feel any better,” Harry said about to start his pacing again when the noise of a door opening reached his ear.

Liam and Niall were in their human forms but they could tell by Harry’s reaction that he’d heard something.

“Are they coming?” Niall asked impatiently.

There was shuffling inside the house, as a number of people moved about. The door opened. Louis emerged supported by one of the alphas who’d been in the interrogation with them. Harry growled, rushing forward to check on the omega.

Louis flinched, before his head came up to look at him properly. It seemed to take him a moment to recognise him, but when he did one of his arms reached forward silently. Harry advanced again and Louis’ arm came up and around his shoulders, grabbing a fist full of his fur. The alpha supporting his other side allowed Harry to take his weight and then backed away.

“What did you do to him?” Harry demanded with a snarl, ignoring the fact that Louis was leaning on his damaged shoulder.

“Nothing out of the normal,” the alpha replied with a shrug, “Your father’s in his study if you want to take it up with him.”

Harry growled as the alpha moved off before looking towards him friends, “Liam could you take Louis, I need to…”

“Harry,” Niall snapped quickly, moving to block Harry’s path back into the house, “Louis needs you. Your father can wait.”

“Move, I’m going to…”

“No,” Niall barked back, leaving no room for argument, “What’s more important? Making yourself feel better about not protecting Louis by having a go at the one that hurt him? Or looking after him now when you can?”

Harry swung his head around to look between Niall, Louis and the door to the pack house.

“But…”

“No buts,” Niall ordered “Either you see Louis’ needs as more important than your own, or you don’t.”  

Harry swallowed before nodding.

“Good,” Niall stated firmly, “Now, you need to get him back to the cell. It’s not the most pleasant place, but it’s dark, quiet and familiar which is what he’ll be looking for while he’s scared.”

Liam moved down the stairs ahead of them, as Harry half carried, half dragged Louis behind him. Niall hovered on the other side of Louis, keeping an eye on him but touching him. Knowing that Louis wouldn’t want to be around anyone unfamiliar never lone touched by one, even if he had met Niall before.

Harry took a slightly longer route then necessary in order to skirt the majority of the pack, and allowed Harry to shield Louis from view with his much bigger wolf form. He was careful of the smaller boy, not sure if they’d hurt him physically as well as mentally.

When they reached the cell Liam backed away immediately, not wanting to leave his unfamiliar scent on the one place that was familiar to Louis. Anne appeared in the cell doorway.

“I thought I’d make it a bit more comfy,” she said gently, “I found one of your old camp mats which I thought would be more comfortable then the stone floor. I made sure to get yours and not Gemma’s so it’ll only smell like you. And a quilt and another couple of pillows.”

Harry gave his mother’s hand a lick in thanks before helping Louis into the cave. Louis collapsed down onto the bed as soon as he saw it, burrowing down into the blankets, till just his face was poking out.

“Once he’s calmed down, bring him up to the house and he can have a bath and I can check his injuries.” Anne said to Harry, before showing him a couple of paracetamol tables and a bottle of water and placing them on the rock near the door. “I’ll cook up some comfort food for dinner tonight.”

“Will father let us take him out of the cell?” Harry asked back, keeping his voice as low and calm as possible.

“I don’t give a damn what he thinks of it,” She snapped back, “he should be ashamed of himself for scaring an omega to such an extreme. If he has a problem tell him to take it up with me.”

Harry bumped his head against her shoulder fondly before turning back to Louis.

“We’ll leave you guys too it,” Anne said, waving the other two boys out ahead of her.

“I’ll be on the door if you need me,” Niall stated, holding up the cell door key, “He’ll be more comfortable with my smell then Liam’s.”

“I’ll see if I can find out what happened from your father,” Liam added in, “so we’ll have some idea what we’re dealing with.”

“Thanks guys,” Harry said looking across his should at them, “I’ll see you later.”

They nodded, before Niall pushed the door closed, blocking out a lot of the light, except for the small window above the door. Harry turned back to the other boy, crouching low in front of him and shuffling forward with a whine.

“I’m ok Harry,” Louis said eventually, glancing up at Harry but not quite meeting his eye.

Harry just whined again and pressed forward to lick at Louis’ exposed cheeks. Louis kept his eyes deflected, in what was a very stereotypical submissive behaviour. Considering how fierce Louis was usually, and the way he’d shut down the conflict between Zayn and himself that time, seeing him like this now was heart-breaking for Harry.

“Lay down,” He instructed gently, “I’ll lay between you and the door.”

Louis shuffled backwards on the mattress until he was laying on his side in the fetal position. Harry gave the side of his face another lick before laying down himself, pressing his back to the omega’s but staying facing the door, so Louis knew he could be trusted to keep watch.

They stayed like that for a short time before Louis rolled over, pressing himself along Harry’s back properly, grabbing fistfuls of Harry’s fur and burying his face in it. Harry breathed out, knowing that Louis had done it because that was what he needed, and because he was comfortable enough with Harry to take it without asking. 

Louis’ hand never let go, even after he’d fallen asleep.


	6. Chapter 5

“I have to say I’m impressed,” Des stated, staring out his study window which overlooked the main camp fire, “their training has been very tough.”

Harry, Des, Geoff and Paul were all in Des’ study. Des sitting in his stupidly large desk chair, back to them so he could overseas his kingdom. Harry was trying not to roll his eyes too much, but at least he had his back to them and couldn’t see. Harry had jumped up onto the couch against one wall and laid down, mostly because he knew it would annoy his father when he got loose fur all over it.

Looking at Geoff and Paul now, Harry was glad to see he wasn’t the only one who didn’t have any clue what his father was on about.

“You mean their fighting abilities?” Paul asked in confusion.

Des turned back to look at them, frowning, “No. I mean that they’ve obviously trained for hostage situations and have made a plan as to how they’ll play it.”

Harry stared, completely baffled as to what his father was going on about. Paul gave him a glance, obviously checking if he was a confused as he himself. Geoff was better at bluffing, but he still didn’t say anything and Harry knew him well enough to know that he only did that when he had no idea what to say.

The silence lengthened.

Paul again glanced around before breaking the silence, “Are you implying that they somehow planned for us to capture the omega?”

“I’m saying,” Des said slowly, as if they were all thick, “that they had trained for a hostage situation and the pack members have obviously be told to claim that they aren’t important enough to warrant a decent ransom.”

Harry sighed, relieved that it was his father going nuts and not he himself.

“What did they say when you went with terms?” Paul asked Geoff, obviously hoping that more information would making this conversation less confusion.

“They said we were asking far too much, considering our hostage was an unmated omega,” Geoff replied, sounding baffled, “I did point out that the omega is his son but he didn’t seem to care particularly.”

“I told you they don’t place the same importance on omegas that we do,” Harry huffed in annoyance, “and the epidemic never reached them so they’re not short of breeding wolves like we are.”

“And I’m saying that you don’t give them enough credit,” Des stated matter-of-factly, “You only believe that because the prisoner told you. I believe that they have been trained that when in a hostage situation they should claim that they are worthless so they can drive down the ransom price.”

Geoff remained quiet again as Paul spoke up, “So what would the betas and alphas be trained to say? Seeing as the “we don’t place value on omegas” line wouldn’t work for them?”

Harry snorted, having to force himself not to wag his tail in amusement.

“I mean you’ve got three different people telling you the same thing,” Paul pointed out, “that’d be pretty hard to plan, especially seeing as they didn’t know in advance who was going to be taken, or if anyone would be.”

“There are only two people telling me the same story,” Des said dryly, levelling Paul with an unimpressed stare, “Harry’s story is coming from the prisoners, which makes it two.”

“Did any of you face a single omega during the battle last week?” Harry asked in exasperation, “their omegas don’t fight. Doesn’t that tell you something about their attitude towards them?”

Des turned his superior gaze on his son, “On the contrary, I’d say it was a sign that they value their omegas even more and won’t risk them getting hurt.”

Harry wanted to scream. If there had been a single omega in the room, Harry thought, they may well have felt like screaming themselves.

“That’s not…” Harry started, before realising that he had no idea where to actually start with this conversation.

“Yes?” Des asked expectantly.

“That’s absurd,” Harry managed to get out, “They clearly think they are less capable and so keep them out of the fighting.”

“Or maybe they can’t afford to lose more omegas,” Des replied as the other two shook their heads, “After all I considered stopping the omegas from fighting after we lost so many.”

Harry growled in frustration, before dropping his head back onto his paws, “Like they would have let you.”

Des raised his eyebrows, “Care to expand on that?”

Harry huffed, “I’m my experience oppressed groups who have gained basic rights generally fight to prevent losing them again.”

“Are you saying that the pack wouldn’t do as I instructed?”

“Damn right I am,” Harry snapped, “You’re not the pack leader because it’s your god ordained right. You lead because they allow you to. If you don’t listen to them they’ll find someone who will.”

Des growled, leaning forward in preparation to stand, “That almost sound treasonous to me.”

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist,” Harry snorted, “this isn’t a dictatorship where we’re not even allow to say that the pack leaders a twat without losing your head. If it was you wouldn’t have any pack left.”

Des growled some more, and Harry just rolled his eyes.

“So…” Paul started slowly, “what’s the plan with the prisoner?”

“We’ll just have to hang on to him,” Des replied, relaxing back into his leather desk chair, “until they realise we’re not mucking around.”

“We’re just going to keep an innocent omega prisoner?” Harry asked in frustration, “indefinitely?”

“Innocent?” Des hissed, “Need I remind you of those who died in that attack.”

“Did I not just point out that Lou, and the other omegas, didn’t fight,” Harry snarled back, “Or are you really as thick as you make out?”

“Get out,” Des barked, “Get out and come back when you’ve learnt some respect for your alpha.”

Harry stalked out of the room, hoping he at least left a good amount of loose fur on the couch.

 

* * *

 

Louis woke slowly. The cave feeling hot and stuffy for the first time since he’d been put in it over a week earlier.

He also had a mouthful of fur. He’d fallen asleep using Harry’s stomach as a pillow, which unfortunately resulted in his face being almost entirely hidden in hair. At least it smelled nice. Louis wondered if Harry had had a bath recently cause it smelled a lot better than usual.

The wounds on Harry’s stomach and shoulder were almost completely healed, thanks to werewolves amazing healing abilities. His tail would likely take a bit longer considering it was a bone brake, but at least Louis didn’t have to worry about hurting the alpha every time he insisted on being affectionate.

It was obviously early in the morning. Louis could feel the breeze coming from the window above the cell door. Louis groaned, rolling over and trying to go back to sleep, only to discover he had a hard on. Of bloody course, he thought in annoyance.

Harry had been insisting on sleeping there most night. Louis kinda thought that Harry had been more shaken by the interrogation then he himself had been. Louis wondered what Harry had seen his father doing that had made him so scared for him. And yet Harry was still completely loyal to the pack, despite his obvious distain for his father.

It’d been a couple of days since Harry had shown up fuming about his father’s inability to believe that Louis’ father wasn’t going to hand over as much as Des wanted for him. Louis shook his head, spitting out more fur. Louis’ father may not have been the most progressive of individuals but nor did he give in to pressure. Des would bend before Louis’ father did. Which meant that he could be stuck in this cell for a very long time.

At least they were letting him shower now. Once a day Harry took him up to what was obviously his childhood home.

Louis had never heard of a pack alpha and omega splitting before but obviously it had happened when Harry was fairly young. There were pictures of him all over the house, along with Gemma and Anne. Louis had never actually seen Harry in his human form, but he’d seen the many, many photos of him that covered every flat surface in the house. There was even one in the toilet, which Louis found slightly creepy.

After Louis showered and got dressed, in clean clothes which Anne seemed to be getting from somewhere, he was fed. Fed at a dining table like an actually person. And then asked what he’d like for the next day. Harry would lay under the table across his feet, like a large dog.

Louis had the crazy thought that maybe they really were desperate for omegas. Maybe Des refused to lower the ransom because they didn’t actually want to give him up. Maybe they were keeping him, and slowly treating him better and better in the hope that he’d eventually be ok with staying. Maybe Des had decided that it was time Harry had a mate and so had gone out and found him one.

Louis couldn’t help but laugh, out loud, at the absurdity of the idea. I really must be tired, he thought.

“What are you giggling about?” Harry asked fondly, in that deep slow voice he had every morning despite the fact that he wasn’t physically speaking because he was still in his wolf form.

“Nothing,” Louis replied, rolling so he was facing towards Harry’s head, and curling his legs up so Harry wouldn’t be able to see his boner even if he could probably smell it.

“Hmm?” Harry hummed, obviously half asleep.

“Go back to sleep fuzz ball,” Louis said, trying not to sound fond.

Harry grumbled half-heartedly, curling around Louis more and nosing at his legs.

“Why do you smell so nice?” He mumbled.

“Natural talent,” Louis joked back, making the body under his head vibrate.

“That I believe,” Harry replied, breathing deeply before settling.

Louis hummed back and before long Harry was asleep again.

Louis laid awake for a long time, trying to decide which would be worse. Getting up so he could cool down, or having to leave the wonderfully comfortable position he was currently in. The longer he lay there the more the first option was looking like the best idea. The cave was getting hotter and hotter, and the breeze from the window more and more attractive.

Eventually he force himself to move. Moving slowly in order to not disturb the sleeping alpha. He rolled quietly to his feet, and moved towards the cell door. He reach up, grabbing the window ledge and pulling himself up. He hung there, breathing in the relief that came with the first breath of fresh air.

“You might be little but you’re not quite little enough to fit out of there,” Harry said idly and making Louis yelp.  

Louis dropped back to the stone floor before turning to look at the wolf on the floor.

“Do you get a kick out of scaring the living daylights out of me?”

Harry stuck his neck out and nosed around Louis’ ankles, “You’re cute when annoyed.”

“Well that explains why you like me so much,” Louis sassed back, hand on hips.

Harry chuckled, “What were you doing?”

“Trying to get fresh air,” Louis snapped back, turning back to the door and standing on his toes, “it’s stinking hot in here.”

“Are you hot?” Harry asked, sounding confused, “Really?”

“Yes!” Louis exclaimed, “it’s so stuffy in here.”

Harry stretched with a yawn, “I actually think it’s quite cold. You should come back here and keep me warm.”

Louis grumbled but moved to sit back down next to Harry. Harry turned to lay his head in Louis’ lap, obviously fishing for an ear scratch. Louis shook his head before indulging the boy. Harry hummed happily, tail sweeping the floor.  

After a moment Harry stilled, turning his head up towards Louis’ face and sniffing. Harry twisted more, putting his feet under himself and pushing up to get closer. Harry sniffed at his neck as Louis leaned away, trying to avoid his moist breath.

“What are you doing?”

“You say you’re feeling hot?” Harry asked, tongue darting out to lick at Louis’ neck, making Louis squawk. “Are you feeling ok? You’re hot to the touch. Restless. Woken with morning wood.” Harry sniffed some more, “Are you expecting a heat?”

Louis blushed, fighting the urge to hide his head in Harry’s fur, “No, but then, you’ve been here almost every night so if I am it’s probably your fault. Do I smell like I’m in heat?”

Harry gazed at him, head tilted, “To be honest you smell good to me all the time, and seeing as I’ve been here for the last six hours I may not have noticed your scent changing.”

“Well what good are you then?” Louis joked.

Harry obviously wasn’t really listening, “If you’re going into heat, you shouldn’t be here.”

“This is my cell, you leave,” Louis ordered playfully, giving his head a shove.

“I should,” Harry said, attempting to get his feet under himself before Louis grabbed a fist full of his fur.

“I was kidding,” Louis insisted, wriggling uncomfortable in a particularly damp spot on the floor.

“Well you shouldn’t be!” Harry whined, “If you’re going into heat having me here will be dangerous.”

Louis rolled his eyes, “I’m in a strange territory, surrounded by enemy wolves. I’m in danger already.”

Harry sat up, so he was looking down at the omega.

“Shit, you’re right,” Harry sounded scared, “If you’re going into heat you’re not safe here. I’m an alpha, I won’t be able to protect you from others without becoming a threat myself.”

Louis shrugged, “Then put another omega on the door.”

“Lou,” Harry insisted with another whine, “I can’t ask one of our wolves to risk getting hurt protecting an enemy wolf. If one of the alphas wants to get to you, even if we’ve got an omega or beta on the door, they’ll be able to do it. You’re in danger.”

Louis sighed, knowing he was right but not seeing any way around it.

“Well if you’ve got a solution I’m all ears,” Louis replied patiently, “It’s not like your fathers going to just let me leave.”

Harry whimpered, pushing his head into Louis’ shoulder affectionately, “He won’t, not until he realises your fathers not going to back down, and when he realises that… who knows what he’ll do. It likely won’t be nice, not when he knows he’s been beaten.”

“So glad I’ll be around to see that,” Louis shook his head as he patted Harry’s ears, “and that I’ll get to sit around here being bored until it happens.”

“You’re right,” Harry stated, sounding certain suddenly, “Whether you’re going into heat now or not, eventually you will have a heat while in captivity and then…” Harry swallowed, pulling back to look at him, “and then I won’t be able to protect you. Sooner or late you’ll get hurt, by me or someone else.”

Louis shivered, before attempting to shrug noncommittally, “It is what it is.”

“I’m not about to just let that happen,” Harry hissed, “I’m going to get you out of here.”

“What?” Louis asked in confusion, slightly shocked by the intensity of Harry’s stare.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” Harry insisted.

“You’re going to defy you pack alpha? Your father?” Louis question, unconvinced.

Harry nodded firmly.

“You know there’s a guard sitting outside right now listening to this?” Louis pointed out.

“She’s asleep,” Harry said matter-of-factly, “I can hear her breathing.” 

Louis frown, “Ok…”

“So I’m going to get you out,” Harry reiterated.

Louis stared at him. The idea of going against his pack alpha was terrifying to Louis. The fact that Harry was obviously willing to do that for Louis was outright petrifying. Louis shook his head. I shouldn’t care what happened to an alpha in another pack, Louis told himself, especially if it got him back to his family.

Louis swallowed before nodding, “Alright, how exactly are you going to do that?”

Harry sat quietly for a while, obviously thinking hard.

“Well…” Harry started slowly, “Liam’s shift starts at five. He’ll have a fresh nose. He’ll be able to tell if you’re going into heat. If you are, we need to get you out now. If you’re not we can take a bit longer to plan this.”

Well that made sense, Louis thought with a nod, “So what do we do until then?”

Harry shrugged, walking back to his earlier position and laying down, “May as well try and get some more sleep, love.”

“It’d help if it wasn’t so hot,” he complained, letting Harry curl around him, “I like cuddling but it’s not as much fun when it’s hot.”

“I’m glad you like cuddling,” Harry pipped, nosing at Louis’ belly affectionately.

Louis chuckled, closing his eyes and leaning back into Harry’s fur, “Better make the most of it, don’t know how much longer I’ll be here.”

Harry whined, licking at one of his hands, “I’ll miss you, but you’ll be happier at home.”

Louis nodded, curling up. Not sure how he felt about the emotion in Harry’s voice.

“Thank you,” He said quietly.

“Go to sleep,” Harry said gently, “I’ll wait for Liam.”

 

* * *

 

Louis was restless. He kept tossing and turning. Harry grew more and more certain that he was in fact in heat, which meant getting him back to his family was paramount. His family and his pack would protect him.

Harry knew that there were members of his pack who would be perfectly happy to protect Louis from anyone else in the pack who took heat as consent. However Harry also knew that no unrelated alpha could protect him without becoming a threat themselves. And most betas and omegas would struggle to hold off an alpha who had the whiff of heat in his nostrils.

Louis had an alpha father and an alpha sister who would be able to protect him. And there were far less likely to be people who were willing to hurt him from within his own pack. Louis was an enemy wolf here within Harry’s. Within Louis’ pack he was the son of their pack alpha, the chances of someone being willing to run the risk of hurting him were much less likely.

Therefore, Harry had to get him back to his family.

Anne and Niall would help. Niall in particular. He’d been a loner for almost ten months. He’d know full well how it feels to go through a heat without the protection provided by pack and family. And in foreign territory, never knowing if he was safe or not. Niall wouldn’t just help, he’d _want_ to help.

Louis was grumbling in his sleep, twisting this way and that. Harry tried to ignore the other boys tented trousers, knowing full well he didn’t want to be thinking about that right at that moment. Thinking about the other boy in a sexual manner was not going to be helpful to this or any future situation. Louis was going back to his pack, and Harry would go back to being lucky to see him once every couple of months.

Harry stayed as still as possible, not wanting to run the risk of disturbing what little sleep the omega was getting.

Louis rolled again, this time giving Harry a view of his arse, and the large wet patch upon it.

Harry had to move. Nicola was on duty, but she was a beta so she hopefully wouldn’t notice anything was off. But things were progressing, and more quickly than Harry had hoped. If they waited till when Liam came on duty Louis could be too far along, which would not only put him at risk but also make him far more difficult to move. They had to get him back to his family as soon as possible.

“Lou, wake up love,” Harry said gently, nudging at Louis to prompt him awake.

Louis blinked at him blearily, “What’s happening? Is Liam here?”

“No not yet,” Harry replied quietly as Louis snuggled into his fur, “But you’re definitely in heat. We need to move you now before it gets too far along. I’m going to ask Nicola to get Niall, he’ll help us.”

Louis nodded silently.

“Nicola?” Harry called raising his voice and hoping like anything that the she-wolf was a light sleeper, “Nicola wake up.”

There was a shuffling on the other side of the door before it went quiet again.

“Nicola!” Harry called louder, “Wake up.”

“I wasn’t asleep,” She said groggily, “Swear.”

“Uh-ha,” Harry agreed, “Sure you weren’t.”

“Sorry Haz,” She replied through the door, “Figured there wasn’t much risk of him trying to escape while you’re in there with him.”

“Its fine, but I need you to do something for me,” Harry replied quickly.

“Do you want to come out?” She asked, and Harry heard the rattle of keys on the other side.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Harry responded before she could get the door open, “I just need you to get Niall.”

“Niall?” She asked in confusion, “Why?”

Harry glanced at Louis, quickly looking for an excuse.

“It’s an omega thing,” He eventually said lamely.

“Um… ok,” She said slowly, “I suppose I don’t really want to know any more than that. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Don’t worry about coming back,” Harry called, “I don’t think Louis will want anyone else to know.”

There was silence for a moment, “Fair enough I suppose. Maybe I can get some decent sleep tonight after all. I’ll go get him.”

Harry listened to her leave before turning to look down at the omega. Louis was dozing again, curled up close to Harry’s stomach, obviously feeling quite safe despite the situation. Harry wished he could change back to his human form. His sense of smell wouldn’t be anywhere near as good and so Louis’ growing scent would be easier to deal with.

Harry let himself look, knowing full well that shortly he’d be saying goodbye. To say that he wanted to memorise everything he could about Louis would be am understatement.

“Harry? Louis?” Niall voice sounded through the door as the key in the lock rattled, “What’s wrong?”

The door squealed open and the bedraggled omega appeared, half blinding Harry with a touch. Harry turned quickly to shield his eyes.

“Oops, sorry,” Niall said, pointing the touch down at the ground, “What’s up?”

“Louis’ going into heat,” Harry replied.

“Shit, ok,” Niall said quickly entering and pull the door closed behind himself, “What’s the plan?”

Harry sighed in relief. He’d known Niall would be on board from the get go, but it was still a relief to not have to convince him.

“We’re getting him out,” Harry said firmly, leaving no room for argument from either of the boys.

“How?” Niall asked as Louis blinked at them silently, obviously having been woken by the noise of the door opening.

“We’ve just got to go,” Harry stated, “we don’t have a choice.”

Niall glanced at Louis shortly, before looking back at Harry, “You’ll have to carry him.”

Harry frowned, “He won’t be safe with me…”

“And he won’t be happy with me,” Niall cut him off, “If you think for a minute that he’s going to leave you now you’ve got another thing coming.”

“He’s not that far gone,” Harry insisted, as Louis curled into his more.

“Maybe…” Niall said doubtfully, “but being near an alpha will hold it off longer. He’ll stay more sober with you around. You’ll have to carry him, that way you can move faster. I’ll have to stay here on the door in case anyone wakes up early and notices there’s no one on guard duty.”

“If you get caught guarding an empty cell…” Harry cautioned.

“Then I get caught,” Niall replied with a shrug, “But then him getting caught.”

Harry swallowed, “Okay, thank you.”

Niall smiled, “Not doing it for you mate.”

Louis looked up at his from his spot curled up against Harry’s stomach, “Thank you.”

Niall nodded, “Come on, get out of here. Go around the back of the camp, it’ll be a longer trip but there’s less chance of you being seen.”

Harry stood, much to Louis’ obvious distress.

“Come on, love, up.”

Louis whined as he climbed to his feet, nudged along by Harry’s nose. Niall pushed open the door and stepped out.  Harry pushed Louis along in front of himself.

Louis breathed a sigh of relief as soon as they stepped out. Harry could smell the difference now, could smell the heat on Louis’ skin. Inside the cave Harry hadn’t really noticed how strong the scent was. Louis had been in there for weeks now, it smelled so strongly of Louis already that the increase in scent had gone unnoticed. But once in the fresh air the scent was only concentrated on Louis himself, and the wind was blowing the scent away from them. That could be a problem, Harry thought warily, with the wind blowing the scent would travel a lot further.

Niall turned, closing and locking the cell door behind them.

Harry turned to nose at Louis again, “Up you get.”

Harry bent his front legs, to make it easier for Louis to climb onto his back. Louis grumbled, grabbing handfuls of Harry fur to pull himself up. Harry used his muzzle to help Louis up, putting his nose uncomfortably close to Louis’ damp arse.

Louis settled himself across Harry’s back, leaning forward so he was laying more than he was sitting.

“Good luck guys,” Niall said, patting Louis’ leg in farewell, “Now off you go.”

Harry nodded and ran. He went slowly at first, worried that the other boy might fall off, but he sped up as Louis wrapped his arms around Harry’s neck. Harry skirted the buildings, keeping the cliff on one side of himself. The cliff got smaller and smaller as they curved around to the east. They’d built the encampment there for defensive purposes. The cliff made approaching the camp from the southwest impossible.

Eventually the cliff gave way to trees and Harry was able to get away from the buildings and start heading towards Louis’ territory properly. Neither of them talked, but Harry could feel Louis rubbing his face against Harry’s fur. Harry pushed on, forcing his legs to go faster, even as his mind became more sluggish.

It seemed to take forever, forever to get out of the encampment. Forever to get into the woods and forever to reach the boarder. Harry had always been one of the biggest wolves in the woods, but he was nowhere near the fastest. In general omegas were quicker then alphas. If Harry had just been helping Louis escape at any other time he would have just told Louis to turn and run. But Louis was in heat, and Harry had to keep him safe.

Harry skidded to a standstill. They’d finally reached the border. Harry hadn’t thought that far ahead. He’d been focused on getting _to_ the border. He hadn’t planned on what to do once they were there.

Harry thought about waiting for a patrol to come along, but he didn’t know how long that would take. But on the other hand if he crossed without permission they were likely to attack him without stopping to ask him what he was doing. And then Louis could really get hurt.

Harry started along the border, hoping that by moving he increased his chance of running into someone. The last time he’d encounter a patrol on this border they’d been coming from the north so that’s the way he headed, hoping they didn’t change up the schedule to avoid being predictable as his own pack did.

Harry trotted now, rather than the flat out run he had been traveling at earlier. Louis was squirming now, obviously uncomfortable. Harry was hoping there was a dawn patrol either already doing the border or else about to be sent out, otherwise they could be here for a while, and Louis’ scent was beginning to get to him. Having Louis touching him made everything worse. He could feel the heat from his skin through his fur, and the smell was making it hard to think, never lone smell anything else. On multiple occasions he lost the border and had to really focus to find it again.

With the scent filling his nose there was no hope of Harry smelling a foreign patrol coming so he tried to keep his eyes and ears open. Unfortunately Louis had now started groaning as well as squirming which made it very hard to concentrate.  

Harry gave up following the border, deciding to head further inward and try to find their settlement. Louis was getting worse and his own control was wavering. If he didn’t get Louis to safety shortly, Harry himself would become the very danger he was trying to protect him from.

Any border patrol would easily pick up his and Louis’ scents crossing the border and would likely come after them, but hopefully by the time they found him he’d be a lot closer to the safety of Louis’ family.

Harry didn’t run, after all he wanted to be found, and he didn’t really know where he was going.

“Lou?” Harry asked, knowing that asking help from the omega would likely be useless but at a loss as to what else he could do, “Lou, you need to tell me where to go.”

Louis just groaned, and rubbed his face against Harry’s neck some more.

“Lou? Lou!” Harry forced an order into his voice, “Where is your family home?”

Louis stilled slightly, looking up and pointing off slightly to their left. Harry sighed in relief and headed in that direction. He hadn’t been sure it would work, using his alpha voice. Louis wasn’t part of his pack or family and therefore technically wasn’t under his command and so in a normal situation Louis wouldn’t be influenced by an order from Harry. However, omegas in heat acted submissive towards almost everyone and Harry had been hoping that that would mean Louis would do as Harry asked.

Harry kept moving, taking instructions from Louis tapping his shoulders in the direction they needed to go.

There was a growl from behind them.

Harry whipped around, Louis sliding precariously to one side on Harry’s back.

“What are you doing here?”

It was the black alpha Harry had met months earlier at the border.

“You need to get his family,” Harry insisted, not bothering with social niceties, “He’s in heat.”

The other alpha stopped a short distance away and sniffed at him.

He nodded, “Stay here.”

He took off at a run, heading straight passed Harry and off in the direction they had been heading.

Harry waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

It felt like ages. But then it had felt like it had taken a week to get to the border. It was worse now though, because he was just sitting there. There was nothing to distract him from Louis and the omega’s scent. Harry had been sporting a hard on for the last twenty minutes or so which, in his wolf form, was inconvenient and got in the way.

Harry lay down, figuring it might be getting uncomfortable for Louis and there was nothing to be gained by his pacing. Harry regretted it instantly. Louis slid off of his back, so he was sitting between Harry’s front and back legs, uncomfortably close to where Harry really, really didn’t want him to be, and yet really did want him to be.

Thankfully, omegas in heat weren’t known for taking the initiative and generally expected the alphas to service them. Louis stayed where he was, curled up against Harry belly.

“Louis!” A pale coloured alpha came sprinting out of the woods.

Louis’ head snapped around, obviously recognising the girl.

“Lottie,” He said, as he got unsteadily to his feet.

Harry used his nose to help him up, and Louis kept a hand on his neck as the other wolf came towards them.

“Get away from him,” The girl snarled at Harry.

Harry shrunk back, the last thing Louis needed was two alphas having a go at each other. Harry tried to move back further to show he wasn’t a risk to either Louis or the girl, but Louis kept hold of him and moved back with him.

Lottie tried to pull on the back of Louis’ shirt but he obviously wasn’t interested in leaving with her. Another couple appeared out of the woods then. Two female omegas, both in human form, followed by the black alpha, who stayed back clearly mindful that getting too close would likely make him aggressive towards the other alphas.

“Boo!” The woman who was plainly Louis’ mother ran forward to hug him, “Oh thank god!”

The younger girl put herself between the female alpha and Harry, likely to dissuade Lottie from getting more aggressive.

“Mum,” Louis said quietly, burying his head in his mother’s neck, having come out of the heat haze, at least for a short time.

Louis’ mother looked up at Harry, “Thank you! Thank you for bringing him back to us.”

Harry nodded, “He wasn’t safe with us anymore. Not like this.”

She surprised Harry by giving him a one armed hug around his neck, keeping the other on her son.

“Thank you.”

Harry nodded, before attempting to move away from the group, “You should get him home.”

Lottie grabbed the back of Louis’ shirt again when it became clear that Louis wasn’t inclined to let go. Harry attempted to pry him off with his nose.

“Lou, you need to let go,” Harry said firmly, “and go with your family.”

Louis whined pushing his face into Harry’s fur.

“Lou,” Harry said again, gently this time, “You need to go.”

“Hazza,” Louis whined, unhappily.

Harry let himself give the side of Louis’ face a lick before forcing the alpha tone back into his voice. “Go with your family.”

Louis looked gloomy but obediently stepped back from the alpha with a whimper that almost undid Harry’s resolve.

“Go on,” Harry said without the force this time, “you’re home now.”

Louis nodded, still frowning as Harry pushed him towards his mother and sisters. His mother and Lottie began half leading and half pulling Louis away. Louis gave a half-hearted wave, before turning to more willingly follow the girls as Harry’s heart ached.

“Thank you.”

Harry’s head snapped around to look at the omega girl who hadn’t followed the others.

“Thank you for bringing him back to us,” She repeated, “I know it must have been dangerous for you to go against your pack alpha. I know you’re putting yourself in danger to protect him. So… just… thank you.”

Harry tried to shrug as his eyes were pulled back to where Louis and the others were disappearing into the trees.

“I’m an alpha, it’s my job to look after people,” Harry said as the black wolf started forward.

“We won’t forget it,” She said.

She looked uncertain for a moment before jumping forward and giving him a quick hug. She then turned and followed her family.

“She’s right,” the black wolf said, moving forward, “You’ve taken a big risk.”

Harry shrugged again, head clearing now that Louis was out of sight and his scent dissipating.

“He wasn’t safe in foreign territory,” Harry replied, “not while in heat.”

Zayn nodded, “I’ll take you back to the border. Hopefully the strength of Louis scent will hide your own. And if we both remark the border we might be able to obscure the point where you crossed.”

Harry nodded before turning and following him back the way they had come.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a couple of days late. xx.

It was a short heat really. Louis came out of it less then forty eight hours later, only to wish he hadn’t. He was then smothered in two weeks’ worth of food, presents and physical affection from his four younger sisters and his mother. His mother wasn’t much inclined to let him out of her sight, insisting on him staying indoors, after failing to keep him in bed passed the end of his heat. She failed to grasp the fact that he’d spent the last two weeks cooped up in bed and wanted nothing more than to get out and do something.

Thankfully, he got multiple visits from friends and extended family members coming to see him and get the full story out of him. His father was happy to see him but waited till he was completely out of his heat before sticking his head into his room.

He’d gotten a good hug and after yet another retelling of his story his father had left with a remark about how impressed he was that Louis had managed to manipulate his way out of a bad situation. Louis was slightly conflicted about whether or not he should tell his father that he hadn’t actually meant to manipulate Harry, and that Harry had been nice because he wanted to be and not because Louis had played with his emotions. But it was so nice to be getting praise from his father, the same man who was going to leave him in enemy hands for who knows how long simply for his pride, that Louis remained silent.

Over the next day Louis got the distinct impression that his mother and father had been arguing, probably about his situation. Naturally his mother had been unimpressed by the fact that her mate was willing to leave their only boy to live as a prisoner.

Felicity and Jay also demanded to know everything there was to know about Harry. Fizzy was somewhat more subtle about it then his mother was but still. And once Daisy figured out that it was the same wolf who had let her keep her first rabbit a couple of months earlier none of them were going to hear the end of it.

Late on the third day after his heat he was in the kitchen helping his mother make dinner and discussing all the things he’s missed.

“So how much were they actually asking for my return?” Louis asked as he chopped onions, being the only one in the family who could consistently not cry while doing so.

“They wanted all the land we’ve taken from them over the last year handed back,” Jay explained as she placed water on to boil.

Louis nodded, understanding why his father wasn’t willing to hand all their hard earned territory back. Their pack had been growing fast in the last ten years, and now they were struggling to feed them all. They needed extra hunting grounds and the coalitions lands in the peak district were ideal, hence why they’d targeted them. They’d survived previously by buying extra food but their funds were running dangerously low.

“What did Dad offer instead?” Lou inquired as Charlotte appeared through the back door, which led directly into the kitchen from the garden.

Jay looked embarrassed and apologetic, “I’m sorry love.”

Louis opened his mouth to respond when Lottie spoke up, “He offered six months of none violence between our packs. Basically he was promising not to attack them again.”

“Which keeping me would ensure anyway,” Louis commented dryly.

“Exactly,” Lottie replied with a frown.

“I don’t know why he didn’t just say no and send the emissary back,” Jay added with a shake of her head, as she started chopping tomatoes.

“Or they could have held onto the emissary and forced a trade,” Charlotte suggested with an off handed shrug, looking over Jay and Louis’ shoulder to see if there was anything she could steal and eat.

“He was sent in good faith!” Jay sounded indignant, “That’d be like us taking Harry as a prisoner after he’d returned Boo to us.”

“Maybe we should have,” Lottie replied sounding blasé, “He likely wouldn’t get any punishment from his pack alpha that way.”

“I wouldn’t put it passed his father, he’s a complete twat,” Louis said as he put the onions on to cook.

“His father?” Jay asked, stopping what she was doing to look at him.

Louis realised then that he obviously hadn’t told them about Harry’s position in his pack.

“Their pack alpha, Desmond Styles, is Harry’s sire,” Louis explained, keeping his eyes on what he was doing rather than meeting the women’s gazes.

He could feel Charlotte staring at the back of his head, “And he’s an alpha.”

Louis nodded, tipping the pasta into the now boiling water.

“So…” Jay said slowly, “You were returned to us by someone who could well be their next pack alpha?”

“Well we definitely should have held on to him,” Charlotte exclaimed as Jay started to add mince and tomato to the onions for the sauce, “we could have demand anything we wanted.”

Louis rolled his eyes, despite his smile. Charlotte was the only alpha among his siblings and would one day be pack alpha herself. She was already trying to think strategically about everything, and was at least pretending to be ok with the idea of putting her pack before her family.

“Charlotte,” Jay frowned at her, “He saved Louis.”

“Yeah, well… nothing personal,” She shrugged, leaning back against the bench, “He could even take it as a complement if he wanted. I mean… he’d be worth a lot.”  

 “Yes well… they thought I’d be worth a lot,” Louis pointed out.

“Why?” Charlotte asked, “Just because of Dad?”

Louis nodded, “The relationships between their alphas and omegas is a bit different. Their omegas fight and everything.”

Charlotte frowned, “But they could get hurt.”

Louis shrugged noncommittally, not wanting to admit he appreciated the other packs position, it was a nightmare having to stay behind while his friends and family were off fighting.

“I mean, I noticed they’re omegas were fighting with them in the battle but I just assumed we’d hit close to their camp,” Lottie said, “or they were desperate or something.”

“Oh here comes Zayn,” Jay mentioned looking out the window, “I thought he was on patrol this morning.”

“He was,” Lottie answered with a frown, “He was here all day yesterday, are you two going to mate or what?”

Louis rolled his eyes as the door rattled. It swung open to show Zayn, standing there in the spare pair of pants that they, like most members of the pack, would leave somewhere around their house. Jay usually left drying clothes on the line for days so they’d be there if someone needed to change back unprepared.

“Hey, sorry,” Zayn said, though why he was apologising Louis had not idea, he was always showing up just in time for food, “I need to steal Louis.”

“We’ve been waiting for you to steal Louis for years now,” Lottie said flatly making Zayn look confused.

“Ignore her,” Louis said putting down his spatula and walking toward Zayn, “What’s up?”

“I need you to come with me,” Zayn replied.

“ _Come_ with me,” Lottie said wriggling her eyebrows, which got her a smack from Jay.

Louis didn’t blink, instead just putting a hand on Zayn’s back and pushing him out the door. Louis pulled it closed behind them having got used to Lottie’s innuendos over the last year or so.

“What’s going on?” Louis asked as they started down the garden path through his mother’s vegetable garden.

Louis breathed a sigh of relief, it was the first time he’d been outside since his and Harry’s mad dash to the border. It was nice, being able to do whatever he wanted again. To talk to his sisters, eat his mother’s cooking and switch the TV on when he was bored. Sleep in his own bed. Alone.

“He wants to talk to you,” Zayn cut into his thoughts, “I didn’t know what to do, but we owe him so…”

“Zayn what are you rattling on about?” Louis asked in confusion, shaking his head at his friend’s weird behaviour.

“I didn’t know where to put him,” Zayn continued, completely ignoring Louis, “Thought we should keep this quiet, don’t know how anyone else would respond. So I put him in the shed. Seems stupid now but still.”

“Wait? What’s in the shed?” Louis asked as they approached the little garden shed which they hadn’t used for years.

Jay wasn’t big on gardening, except for her little kitchen garden where she grew herbs and vegetables and the likes. Daisy and Phoebe had gone through a phase a couple of years back where they’d wanted to plant every flower they could find at the local nursery but they seemed to have gotten over it now.

“He’s in there,” Zayn said nodding to the shed door, “He wants to talk to you. I need to get back to the patrol, otherwise they might start getting suspicious.”

“Who might?” Louis asked, getting frustrated, “What are you on about?”

“Just go in there and see,” Zayn replied, starting to take his trousers back off, “I’ll see you later.”

Zayn hurdled the back fence, before draping the trousers over said fence and shifting. He turned and ran off before Louis could ask any more questions that the boy would probably just refuse to answer anyway.

Louis turned to look at the shed. It was just a rundown wooden shed. There was a window next to the door but it was so dirty that it was impossible to see through it.  Louis shrugged, after all there was no way Zayn would leave him alone with anything or anyone dangerous. Louis pushed on the door, wishing as soon as he did that he’d thought to shift first so that he’d have his wolf senses on his side.

Too late now, he thought as the door creaked open.

“Lou?”

Louis stared open mouthed. He’d never seen him in his human form before, but he’d seen enough photos to recognise him. Anne had them everywhere. Their house was a museum to her and her children’s lives. Harry as a toddler wearing his mother’s bra. Harry and Gemma on holiday in Jersey. Harry’s hair beginning to curl when he’d started school. Harry wearing that ridiculous umbrella hat and looking so bloody pleased with himself while doing so. Anne was so proud of her children that she had pictures of them on every horizontal surface.

Here in this shed there was little light and the air was full of dust and cobwebs but it was clearly him. Taller than the pictures had suggested, but not as big as his wolf form had made Louis believe he would be. His curls were longer, framing his face and half hiding his ridiculous jaw line, then in any of the pictures. But it was him. It was Harry. Bright green eyes boring into him through the gloom.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Louis exclaimed, before lowering his voice, stepping inside, and pulling the door closed behind himself, the last thing he needed was one of his sister coming to see what was going on, “How did you get here?”

“I met Zayn at the border, along with one of your sisters and another wolf on patrol,” Harry explained moving forward towards him slowly, “Zayn brought me here and sent the other two to continue the patrol.”  

“No wonder he was blabbering,” Louis said with a sigh, “That doesn’t answer why you’re here.”

Harry smiled at the ground, revealing some annoyingly cute dimples, “Yeah well… that’s a bit harder to explain.”

“Well you’re bloody well going to try,” Louis snapped, making Harry’s smile grow wider.

“For an omega you’re really bloody demanding,” Harry said stepping forward into Louis’ personal space, “especially considering how your pack treats omegas.”

“Yes well, you’re the blooming epitome of an alpha,” Louis sassed back.

And then suddenly he was being hugged. Louis wasn’t sure how he felt about that. It was different, with both of them being in human form. Harry had been physically affectionate before, annoyingly so at times, but he’d been a wolf. Not a human who had massive hands and a firm chest and stomach, broad shouldered and intimidatingly attractive. Now Louis had to deal with the fact that he fit perfectly under Harry’s chin.

Louis shoved him away, “Enough with the hugging, on with the explaining. What the hell are you doing here?”

Harry’s smile faded, and he just stared down at Louis for a long moment before finally speaking, “Niall got caught. Took them a while to figure it out. It was just passed lunchtime and someone thought they’d be nice and check if your bucket needed emptying.”

“And they found an empty cell,” Louis finished, with a nod.

“Yeah, bit of a nasty shock for them,” Harry agreed, with an apologetic look, “So they back tracked through the schedules to figure out who’d let you out. And well… Niall can’t lie to save himself.”

“What did they do to him?” Louis asked concerned, he didn’t like the idea of the Irish boy getting in trouble for him.

“Well Niall’s not pack born,” Harry said, running a hand through his hair, “and an omega, he wouldn’t survive being kicked out of another pack. It’d kill him.”

“What did you do?” Louis asked accusingly, realisation dawning on him.

 Harry shrugged looking guilty, “I couldn’t let him take the fall for it.”

“What did you do?” Louis repeated, stepping forward and pocking a finger into Harry’s chest.

“Ow, judgey little thing aren’t you,” Harry said rubbing at the stop on his chest, “And it _was_ my idea. Niall was just following orders. He could hardly say no to his future pack alpha.”

“Or at least that’s what you told them,” Louis said with raised eyebrows.

“Exactly,” Harry said with a half-hearted grin, looking pleased with himself if a little sad.

“So you took the fall for Niall,” Louis summarised, “and…”

“And…” Harry sighed, looking down at the ground and avoiding Louis’ eye, “got a year’s exile.”

“What?” Louis’ eyebrows came together, “Exile?”

Harry nodded silently, “For twelve months.”

“Shit Haz…”

Louis didn’t really know what to say. Loosing ones pack was considered the most traumatic thing a wolf could go though. And he knew how close the alpha was to his family and how crushed he must be feeling. Having just days earlier been facing the prospect of spending an unknown amount of time away from his own family he could empathise, even if he didn’t want to. And for Harry it’d be worse because it was they who cast him out.

“It’s alright,” Harry said unconvincingly, “It just means spending some time with one of the other coalition packs. Liam’s from the southern pack so he and his family visit them every now and then and will keep me informed.”

“Someday you’re going to have to tell me how you ended up with so many outsiders in your pack,” Louis tried to joke but Harry gaze was as serious as Louis had ever seen it. “So why are you here?” Louis asked eventually, when the weight of his gaze became too much.

Harry shrugged, taking a step back, “I just… I needed to make sure you were ok. You know… before I left.”

“I’m fine Harry,” Louis asserted gently, “You made sure of that. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Harry’s gaze was back on him, heavy and unrelenting, “But I do worry about you.”

Louis shifted uncomfortable, scratching at one of his arms just to give his hands something to do.

“I couldn’t leave…” Harry started slowly, “without… without saying goodbye. I mean… the southern coalition pack doesn’t share any borders with yours so I won’t see you, for a while.”

Louis’ chest tightened uneasily, “Well you know I’m fine now so…”

Harry nodded, looking down at the ground obviously uncertain.

“Why do you care so much?” Louis asked in frustration when the alpha didn’t say anything.

“You know why,” Harry stated matter-of-factly, eyes rising to meet Louis’.

Louis swallowed, he knew Harry was emotionally attached. Louis wasn’t stupid, he knew Harry had been attracted to him from the first time they’d met. But he never thought Harry would actually entertain the idea of there ever really being something between them. Harry was young, younger then Louis himself was, but he was the future alpha of his pack. His sister had lost that very position because she had mated with an outsider. How could he? It was only then that Louis realised the major implication of Harry’s exile.

“Gemma… You’re going to miss the birth.”

Harry bit his lip, looking off to one side to avoid meeting Louis’ eye, “Yeah…”

“Oh god Haz,” Louis said sadly, knowing how excited Harry had been about being an uncle, “I don’t understand, how could your father do that to you?”  

“I betrayed the pack,” Harry said, raw emotion emerging in his voice as he obviously tried to keep it off of his face, “If it had been anyone else it would have been a permanent banishment.”

Louis couldn’t help the whine that emerged from his throat.

“I’m so sorry Harry,” Louis said gently, giving his elbow a squeeze.

“It’s not your fault love,” Harry replied, levelling his unsettling gaze back on Louis, “I made the choice.”

Louis shook his head insistently, “If you hadn’t tried to help me you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“No,” Harry agreed, much to Louis’ surprise, “ _you_ would be in an even worse one.”

Louis couldn’t argue with that, but it was still his fault.

“You didn’t ask to be taken prisoner,” Harry said, leaning forward over the other boy so he was looking down more than forward, “It was my father’s fault for not listening, or else the group of wolves who took you prisoner to begin with. This is _not_ your fault.”

“My pack attacked yours, not the other way around!” Louis exclaimed, finding it so annoying that Harry insisted on taking responsibility for everyone else.

“And I’m sure your father had his reasons,” Harry replied, nosing at Louis’ hair much as he had in his wolf form, “He has to look after his pack.”

Louis groaned in frustration, turning his head up to meet Harry eyes, “You don’t even know why we invaded! You’ve never even met my father. For all you know he might have done it for the fun of it.”

Harry smiled sadly, “He can’t be too bad, he raised you.”

Louis tried to roll his eyes but it was kinda hard with Harry’s face so close to his own. Louis couldn’t imagine what it would be like to miss one of his sisters having their first child. Harry was easily as close to his mother and sister as Louis himself was to his own. And now because of him, Harry was going to be force to be away from them for the first time in his life. He was going to be forcefully separated from his pack, the very wolves who he was planning on dedicating the rest of his life to. Maybe Louis was weak, maybe he was just getting a bit soft because of what he’d so recently been through. Or maybe he himself was a little attached, Harry had been his only support for the first few days he’d been in that cell, and his comfort and protection after the nightmare that was his interrogation. Louis had nightmares about being back in that basement with those alphas. And because Harry had tried to protect him, he was now being forced out of his pack. Pack was everything to a werewolf, to be without it was to lose part of yourself.

Louis swallowed, trying to figure out a way he could make this better.

“Stay here,” Louis said quickly, moving back towards the door, “I’ll be back. Just… stay here.”

 

* * *

 

Harry had no idea what the other boy was doing. He’d been so close that Harry could feel the heat emanating off his body and then he’d just turned and disappeared so quickly that Harry had taken a moment to comprehend what he was saying.

So Harry waited, it the tiny, dusty and dark garden shed, which seemed to be little more than a permanent home to some outgrown bicycles and rusting garden tools.

Harry sat down on an overturned flower pot pulling his backpack, which had sat on the floor in a corner for his entire conversation with Louis, towards himself. He pulled out his water bottle and took a swig. He didn’t have much with him, he figured he wouldn’t need a lot of stuff when he would only be staying with their southern neighbour for a relatively short time. Harry had a couple of pairs of clothes, a small photo album and basic toiletries. Along with that was a brace his mother had made which he could wear when in his wolf form to help his tail heal straight.

Harry re-zipped his backpack and stood up again. He’d only started retaking his human form the day before, and standing and laying on his stomach were really the only positions he could be in that didn’t cause him pain. He was walking without it hurting too much now but if he sat for longer than a minute or so it began to ache. His wolf form was more comfortable, but he’d really wanted to be able to have a shower before he left and he thought that if he showed up on the border in his human form he’d be perceived as less of a threat.

Harry tried to wipe the dirt off the shed window but there was just as much muck on the outside of the window so he still couldn’t see anything. He started pacing again, just for something to do.

It was close to an hour later when Louis returned.

“Lou, what is going…?” Harry stopped abruptly, as he turned toward the door.

Louis was there, but so was an older male. An alpha male.

“Harry, this is my father, Mark Tomlinson,” Louis said calmly, as if it was completely normal to introduce a foreign wolf who was trespassing on their land to the pack alpha, “Dad this is Harry Styles.”

Harry met the other alphas eyes, “Sir.”

Mark nodded silently, surveying him. Harry was struck by how little Louis resembled his father. Harry wondered if he’d resemble him more in his wolf form.

“So you’re the one who returned my son to me,” Mark said after a while.

Harry nodded silently in return, trying to keep his eyes on the alpha and off of Louis.

“For that I owe you a debt,” Mark continued, “in return for this I offer you this packs hospitality for the length of your exile. If you agree at the end of this period you will return to your own pack and we will both view this debt as paid.”

Harry stared at him hardly believing his ears.

“Just a couple of weeks ago your pack invaded our lands,” Harry said without thinking.

Mark shrugged, “And yours took my son prisoner. Those were not your actions but the actions of your pack. You returned Louis to us, at great personal risk. Therefore we are responsible for the punishment given to you for these actions. If you wish to stay you are welcome.”

Harry breathed, trying to figure out how to reply. He wished more than anything that Louis had told him what he’d been planning when he left. That would have given him time to think about it.

“There will of course be conditions,” Mark continued calmly, “Louis will be in charge of your care. He will be both your guide and your guard. Understand that you will not be a full member of the pack. You will not be allowed on border patrols or battles, for obvious reason, and you will not be allowed to take a mate from within the pack. But all other actions, after a probationary period, will be available to you. After this period you will join the regular schedule for duties.”

Harry wasn’t really sure if he wanted to do this. With the West Midlands pack he’d be kept in the loop. There would be chances to see his family. He’d be with allies. With Louis’ pack he’d be in enemy territory. He’d be restricted in his movement and action, and would likely be viewed with suspicion from most of the other members of the pack. But he’d be with Louis.

Louis was either doing this because he felt guilty about Harry’s punishment, or else… or else he didn’t like the idea of not seeing Harry for such a long time.

Harry nodded finally, “Thank you sir, but…”

Mark nodded once, “You have until noon tomorrow to make up your mind. Then I will tell the pack of our arrangement. Until then I ask that you maintain a low profile. My mate will feed and house you tonight, and tomorrow Louis will find you living quarters and ensure you are fed.”

Mark offered Harry his hand. They shook and Mark turned and left. Harry turned his gaze back on Louis, looking incredulously.

“What the hell was that?” Harry asked in exasperation, “Didn’t want to warn me or anything?”

Louis looked rueful, stare at his toes, “Sorry. I didn’t really think. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I can take you back to the border.”

Harry’s gaze softened. He was used to Louis being loud and defiant all the time, he sometimes forgot how he looked when he wasn’t pretending to be confident.

“Or you could stay for a while,” Louis continued more quietly, “I mean it’s not like you couldn’t leave whenever you wanted. You could stay for a while and if you don’t like it…”

“Lou…” Harry started gently, not really knowing how he was planning on finishing that sentence.

“I know you were going to go to the west midlands pack but you could stay for a while,” Louis suggested, still no looking at him.

“Why do you want me to stay?” Harry asked eventually, moving towards the other boy, “Why do you care?”

Louis stayed quiet, not looking at, or acknowledging, him.

“Lou,” Harry placed a hand on the side of the smaller boy’s face, “Do you want me to stay?”

Louis bit his lip, only holding his eye for a short moment, “I don’t know.”

“Yes you do.”

“Haz…”

Harry kissed him.

It was an impulse he’d been fighting for a while now. But well, he’d been stuck in his wolf form, it kinda made kissing difficult.

Louis whined and push him away.

“We can’t.”

Harry wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not but Louis sounded sad.

“I know love,” Harry replied quietly, “I’m sorry.”

Louis nodded, “I’ll take you back to the border.”

“If that’s what you want,” Harry replied, moving to pick up his bag.

“I mean…” Louis sounded uncertain, “isn’t that what you want?”

Harry shrugged, pulling his backpack straps over his shoulders. “It’ll be easier for you that way.”

“And you,” Louis shot back.

“No, not me,” Harry replied, straightening up and looking at Louis, “I mean, maybe it’ll be easier long term, but no. It won’t be easier for me.”

“Then…” Louis started with a frown, “stay.”

“Lou?”

There was the sound of running feet and Louis looked panicked.

“We’ll talk later, yeah?” Harry said, quickly stepping up next to Louis and placing a comforting hand on the back of his neck.

“Yeah,” Louis replied just as two identical girls appeared down the garden path.

“Harry!” One of them exclaimed before throwing herself at the alpha.

Harry found his arms full of tiny blond female. Harry stared at Louis in confusion for a moment before he put the dots together.

“Daisy?”

She pulled her head back to grin up at him.

“Then you must be Phoebe,” Harry said to the identical blond standing at the curve in the garden path.

The other girl nodded, “You’re Harry. Dad said you’re staying with us tonight.”

Harry nodded with a kind smile as Daisy stepped back and then grabbing one of Louis’ hands.

“Come on, Mum wants to meet you properly,” Daisy said starting to drag him back up the garden path.

Harry looked back at Louis helplessly, but Louis just shook his head fondly and followed. The twins led Harry up the path, further into the garden, and towards the house which Harry could see above the trees and shrubs. Phoebe opened a small gate into a small kitchen garden, before leading them up a couple of steps and into the house.

Harry found himself in a kitchen. It was smaller than his mother’s kitchen, which Harry hadn’t expected. Louis lived in the pack house, as was proper for the family of the pack alpha, so Harry had expected a bigger house then the one he’d grown up in. A house like the pack house his father lived in. But Harry’s pack’s house was big and gratuitous and cold. Louis’ was small, particular when considering there were five children, but homey. Anne would like it, even if she would complain about the lack of bench space.

A taller version of the twins was standing leaning against a bench, with half a piece of spaghetti hanging out of her mouth. Louis’ mother was bent over the oven, placing some sort of pie into it.

“Good angle Mum,” The older girl said dryly as the rest of them toddled in behind Phoebe.

Jay straightened quickly, turning to look flustered when she saw Harry.

“Oh, you could have warned me,” She exclaimed, whipping her hands off on a tea towel.

“Harry,” Louis said, “this is my mother.”

Harry smiled, about to offer his hand when he found himself being smothered in a hug.

“Call me Jay.”

Harry awkwardly hugged her back, with the one arm that wasn’t pinned to his side.

“And this annoying pain in the arse,” Louis said nodding towards the older girl, “is the eldest of my sisters, Charlotte.”

“We met when you returned Louis too us,” She added.

Harry’s mind raced for a moment before he figured it out, “The alpha female.”

She nodded silently.

“Kids go wash your hands,” Jay said waving them out of the kitchen, “dinner will be on the table by the time you get back.”

Harry waited until the others had left and then followed close behind Louis, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the sudden change of event his day had taken. Harry wondered how long it would take to figure out which name belonged to which girl.

Harry followed Louis into a small bathroom where they all took turns at washing their hands. There were no toothbrushes on the bench top so Harry assumed there must be at least one other bathroom in the house. Louis waited for him by the bathroom door as the other girls headed straight back to the kitchen.

“Don’t mind Lottie,” Louis said quietly when Harry turned to dry his hands on the rather damp hand towel, “She’s just trying to play the alpha. She’ll get over it once she gets to know you.”

Harry smiled, putting a hand on Louis’ back to lead him out of the room. “She’s just looking out for you.”

“Yeah well, someone should tell her that’s the big brothers job,” Louis said under his breath.

Harry chuckled as they re-entered the kitchen. The kitchen opened on one side to a dining area where  the girls were now all seated.

“Is Dad coming?” Daisy asked as she bounced on her chair.

Jay shook her head as she moved to place a large bowl of pasta on the table next to the pot with the sauce in it, “No, he has to work tonight.”

The twins deflated with a whine before beginning to help themselves to food.

“Daisy why don’t you move over one so Harry can sit next to Louis,” Jay suggested, nodding to an empty seat on the other side of the table.

“But I wanna sit next to Harry,” Daisy complained back straight away.

“I’ll move,” Phoebe said with an eye role, standing and moving to the empty chair.

“Thank you Phoebe,” Harry said, as Louis moved over one so Harry would be siting between him and Daisy.

Jay gave Phoebes shoulder a squeeze as she took a seat herself. On the table was pasta and sauce, two different types of cheese, a small container of sour cream and a jug of some sort of juice.

“This looks lovely Jay,” Harry said indicating the spread, “Thank you.”

“You are quite welcome, love,” She replied with a warm smile, “seems only fair that we have you here considering the fact that your mother has apparently been feeding my son for the last two weeks.”

Harry smiled and took the bowl of pasta as Louis handed it to him, “She loves cooking for people, and she hates it when Gemma and I miss meals because of duties.”

“Gemma’s your sister?” Daisy asked piling cheese onto her plate before she even put anything else on it.

“Yeah,” Harry said, handing her the pasta.

“Daisy, leave some for Fizzy,” Jay chastised as Daisy made to tip the whole lot onto her plate.

Daisy grinned innocently as she picked up the serving spoon instead.

“She your little sister?” Jay asked once Daisy put the bowl down with a decent amount still in the bottom.

“Bigger,” Harry replied sprinkling parmesan over his sauce, “or at least in age, not so much height wise.”

“A bit like Louis,” Charlotte commented with a smirk at her big brother.

“Go suck a lemon,” Louis sassed back making the twins giggle, “I’m still taller then you.”

“She got a mate then?” Jay asked between mouthfuls, ignoring her oldest two, “Or do you do your best to scare them off like Lottie does.”

“I don’t _try_ to scar them off,” Charlotte said indignantly, “I succeed every time.”

“Oh yeah,” Louis said with an eye role, “Let’s pretend that’s the reason I’m unmated. Got nothing to do with Father.”

Harry smiled at the exchange, reaching out with his foot and hooking it around one of Louis’ ankles.

“Nah, my sister would probably try to kill me if I’d tried to put the hard word on any of her partners.” Harry said, pouring a drink for both Daisy and himself. “She’s mated now anyway, and expecting her and Ed’s first later this year.”

“Aw pups,” Jay said with a happily smile, “that’s exciting. Louis, you need to get a move on and give me some grandchildren.”

“I think it’s Zayn who needs to get a move on,” Charlotte added.

Louis groaned, and it was clear to Harry that this conversation was one they’d had numerous times before.

“Yeah Boo bear,” Charlotte said with another smirk, looking so much like Louis as she did so, “You don’t want to end up the oldest unmated omega in the pack.”

“Oldest?” Harry asked in surprise, “Do your omegas mate young then?”

“What would you call young?” Jay asked, “Most omegas are mated by the times they’re in their early twenties.”

Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise, “Oh okay, most of ours mate in their late twenties or early thirties, it’s rare that someone mates before they’re twenty.”

“But an omegas fertility rate starts dropping within a couple of years of turning twenty,” Charlotte stated around a mouthful of pasta, “Don’t they want to make sure they can have kids?”

“Louis said you’re pack suffered from a disease or some sort a while back,” Jay added, “And you lost a lot of pups and mothers. Wouldn’t you be trying to increase birth rates?”

Harry shrugged, trying not to offend them by suggesting their views on sex and presentation were a bit backwards. “We are trying to increase our numbers, but we’ve generally gone about that by accepting wolves from outside the pack. Gemma’s mate is a former loaner.”

“Seriously?” Charlotte asked with a frown, “You let loners near your omegas?”

“Gemma’s an alpha,” Louis said quickly before Harry could answer.

“What?” Charlotte said, frown deepening, “But you said she’s pregnant.”

“An alpha having a kid?” Daisy chirped.

“She is,” Harry said with a nod, remembering having the same conversation with Louis.

“Well I suppose you don’t want a former loner raising you’re pack’s pups,” Lottie said thoughtfully, “You don’t know what their childhood was like, or if they’ll be good parents.”

“Lottie,” Jay hissed with a tiny shake of the head.

“What?” Lottie asked.

“Try saying that to her,” Louis cut in again, “She might just take your head off for the offense, she’s naturally very protective.”

“As most people are over their mates,” Jay added quickly.

“By why else would an alpha decide to carry a child when they have a perfectly capable omega?” Lottie asked sounding completely astounded.

“Lottie, you’re being rude,” Jay stated quickly, “you don’t know the dynamics of the relationship, nor what other factors might be at play. Leave it.”

“It’s alright,” Harry said calmly, “Louis asked much the same thing when he met her.”

“Glad to know I’ve raised two such courteous children,” Jay said with a defeated sigh.

“Why can’t an alpha have pups?” Phoebe asked sounding somewhat confused, “I mean if they’re able why not?”

“Cause it’s an omega’s job,” Lottie replied dismissively, “Omegas are made for it.”

“What exactly am I made for?” Another voice asked from a doorway leading further into the house.

A moment later a shorter version of Jay appeared in the doorway, obviously the missing sister, Fẻlicitẻ.

“Having children,” Charlotte repeated as Fẻlicitẻ walked to the empty seat and sat down, tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder.

“Hate to break it to you sis but you’ve got a uterus too,” She said picking up the half cold pasta and helping herself, “At least I don’t have to put up with it reminding me of that fact every month.”

“No you just have to go through a heat every time your hormone levels get to high,” Charlotte fired back. 

“Yeah but I don’t have to worry about waking up in a pool of my own blood,” Fẻlicitẻ shot back, making the younger girls make ‘ew’ sounds.

“Girls, enough,” Jay said firmly, “Apologies Harry. I’m the pack midwife so the girls have little understanding of what boundaries are.”

“In our defence,” Fẻlicitẻ said as she started tucking into her food, “Louis doesn’t either, just that he’s a guy and gets away with it.


	8. Chapter 7

Louis closed the door behind himself with a sigh as Harry flopped down onto the pull out bed in the small lounge room. Louis lent his forehead against the door as Harry chuckled.

“You’re sisters are adorable,” Harry commented from behind him.

“I love them but sometimes I could strangle them,” Louis replied, turning to look at the alpha.

It was close to midnight and Jay had pulled the extra mattress out and placed it on the foldout bed which they usually used as a couch in the smaller of the two lounge rooms. This was the room that Louis and Mark usually got sent to when they wanted to watch football. Jay had been a bit overly concerned about how many blankets Harry would need but eventually Harry had convinced her he’d be fine, and she’d gone to bed.

Harry smiled up at him, “I think they’re gorgeous.”

“Even when they’re being insensitive?” Louis said with a rueful grin.

“Even then,” Harry continued to smile at him as he came to sit down next to him on the fold out bed, “curiosity is evidence of passion and intelligence.”

Louis snorted in disbelief, “Sure, whatever you want to call in. I hope they didn’t make you feel like you were being interrogated.”

“What, like that time a member of my family actually physically interrogated you?” Harry asked back.

Louis shrugged, still not liking to think about his time in that basement.

“You never told me what he did to you,” Harry added when Louis didn’t answer.

Louis shifted uncomfortably.

“You don’t have to, love,” Harry said gently, shuffling over so he was closer to Louis, “I’m just worried about you.”

“You don’t have to be,” Louis replied quietly fiddling with some fluff on his pants.

“Maybe I want to be,” Harry replied letting his gaze settle on the other boy.

“Well you shouldn’t,” Louis said, standing abruptly, hands clenched, “Seriously Harry, what are you thinking?”

Harry shrugged, because to be honest he was really trying not to think about any of this too hard. He just looked at his hands as Louis glared down at him.

“If you want me to leave tomorrow I will,” Harry said eventually.

“Don’t you dare, don’t you fucking dare put that on me,” Louis hissed angrily.

“But it is on you,” Harry replied calmly, “You’re the one that convinced your father to let me stay here, if you didn’t want me here why did you do it?”

“Same reason you brought me back here,” Louis snapped, “Because it was the right thing to do. I owe you.”

“Bullshit,” Harry replied with a snort, “you don’t owe someone for being decent.”

“You’re a pain in the butt, you know that?” Louis asked, practically deflating in front of him, “Why do you have to be so frustrating?”

Harry chuckled humourlessly, “Just natural talent I guess.”

“I’m not sure talent is the correct term,” Louis sighed, dropping back onto the bed beside him.

Harry laughed, “Definitely not the correct term.”

Louis smiled down at his feet, dangling just out of reach of the floor.

“Do you want me to stay?” Harry asked softly.

“Of course I want you to stay,” Louis said sounding exasperated, “Why else would I have gone to all this trouble?”

Harry couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Just…” Louis started before stopping again for a moment and taking a breath, “Just… stay.”

“Ok,” Harry agreed easily.

Louis looked up at him, looking surprised for some reason.

“Oh… ok, well…” Louis stood up awkwardly and meandered towards the door, “I’ll see you in the morning then.”

Harry smiled with a nod, “Ok.”

Louis nodded, standing at the door awkwardly, as if he wanted to say something more but didn’t know how to go about it.

“Lou?”

He looked up, like a startled rabbit.

“Good night Lou.”

Louis nodded again, “Good night.”

He shoved the door open and disappeared.

“Sleep well Love.”

 

* * *

 

“Shouldn’t we be at the pack meeting?” Harry asked as Louis led him towards a small flat.

“No,” Louis said firmly, pushing open the flat door and leading Harry inside, “Most of them won’t like it. Some of your lot killed almost half a dozen of us a couple of weeks ago. They won’t like having you here, so… best avoid them until they get used to the idea.”

“Right… how long do you think that will be exactly?” Harry asked as Louis led him though a small lounge room and into an almost empty bedroom.

Louis shook his head silently, “Who knows? They’ll get over it. It’s not like anyone could actually dislike you once you show them those ridiculous dimples.”

“Oh really?” Harry grinned at him, dimples on full display.

Shit, Louis thought, shouldn’t have said that last bit, now I’ll never hear the end of it.

“Shut up,” Louis replied with an eye role as his flipped on the light.

It was a small room, barely big enough to hold the double bed and a small bedside chest of draws.

“You can stay here,” Louis said, changing the subject, “Had to blackmail Zayn into it of course. He wasn’t too please. Said he didn’t think he could live with the stink.”

“Well he doesn’t exactly smell like a bouquet of flowers himself,” Harry said dropping his bag onto the maroon bed cover, “So this is his flat?”

“Yeah,” Louis replied, “This was his sisters Doniya’s room but she’s recently mated and moved out. I was actually thinking about moving in. But I don’t know how I’d live without the girls. Don’t know how I’d deal with the silence.”

Harry smiled, he and Louis were such opposites. Louis was the eldest who’d grown up in one of the loudest household Harry had ever been in. And he came out of it loud and snarky and wonderfully sassy. While Harry grew up with just his Mum and older sister and he’d been taught to be polite and courteous about everything no matter what.

“Would that be allowed?” Harry asked, bouncing on the bed to check its springs, “I mean, an unmated omega living with an alpha? With the way your pack treats omega I would have thought you’d have to live with your father or an alpha relative until you bonded.”

“Well…” Louis started, “yeah, but… well Zayn’s basically family anyway.”

Harry frowned feeling uncomfortable, “Lottie said something yesterday. She said that it wasn’t about you getting a move on and giving Jay grandchildren, it was about Zayn getting a move on.”

Louis looked as uncomfortable as Harry felt, “Yeah well… we were always sort of… I don’t know… expected.”

Harry frowned in confusion looking up at the other boy, “Expected? Or intended?”

Louis shrugged, “Both I suppose. That’s the thing about pack life, you grow up knowing everyone who will ever be an option for your mate, and when none of them are… well you know. When you don’t really want any of them like that you kinda just choose someone who you’d be happy living with for the rest of your life, even if you’re not in love with them or whatever. If it’s got to be someone, it may as well be your best friend.”

“So you’re expected to mate?” Harry asked, “No matter what?”

“What and your omegas aren’t?” Louis asked incredulously, “You’re trying to tell me that an omega in your pack would be allowed to just never mate, even though you’ve got a short supply of breeding omegas?”

“Well…” Harry opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, “I mean they’re not forced to mate, it’s expected or whatever but like, no one’s going to make them.”

Louis scoffed, “Oh yeah, not physically, but society would make it incredibly difficult for them not to. And they’d be alone, while everyone else had someone, they’d be alone.”

Harry swallowed, obviously conflicted, “I… I’ve never really thought of it that way.”

“Whoop, there it is, alpha privilege,” Louis with a show of throwing his hands in the air, “You don’t have to think about it, you’re an alpha, if you don’t mate everyone will just think it’s because no omega came up to your standards.”

“Ahha!” Harry said pointing his finger at the omega, “You forget, I’m the future pack alpha, of course I’m expected to mate. I have to have an heir.”

Louis hadn’t actually thought of that, but then, he was never going to have that issue, he had plenty of sisters to supply children, even if only one of them was an alpha, at least one of them would have an alpha child. Harry only had himself and Gemma, and Gemma had been disinherited so she wasn’t legally going to be passing on the family name.

“So who was your pick?” Louis asked, “Who was your backup to mate if no one ended up taking your fancy?”

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, “I don’t know, as I said I hadn’t really thought about it. I mean, under the rules of the coalition we’re allowed to mate with anyone who’s from a member pack. I kinda always just assumed that I’d meet someone and that would be it.”

“I suppose that makes the eligibility pool bigger,” Louis replied with raised eyebrows, “You’ve at least got some options.”

“So your pack’s only allowed to mate within the pack?”

“Of course,” Louis said with a frown.

“But doesn’t that mean you have an issue with interbreeding?” Harry asked, “Isn’t it hard to find someone that you’re not already related to?”

Louis had noticed when he was a prisoner that there were the same people guarding him over and over again. He’d thought that it was just because there weren’t many people who hadn’t been touched by the loss from the battle, and maybe that was part of the problem. But then, maybe Harry’s pack was also smaller, which would explain the formation of the coalition.

“I don’t think you realise how big this pack is,” Louis stated slowly, “that’s why we invaded you to begin with. We need more hunting grounds, the packs growing so fast we can’t keep feeding them from our reserves.”

Harry eyebrows went up, “You really weren’t touched by the epidemic. But if it’s that big how come you didn’t overwhelm us? How did we win?”

“Probably because a third of our pack don’t fight,” Louis pointed out, sitting down next to him but keeping a good foot between them, “And of course some of the female betas are either pregnant or nursing so they weren’t fighting either. And you had backup.”

“I was just a kid when the coalition formed,” Harry said thoughtfully, “I suppose I never really appreciated how difficult it must have been for the pack before it. Maybe Dad deserves more respect than I thought.”

Louis snorted, “Not too much, he is a dick.”

Harry laughed, “Your own father isn’t the friendliest person I’ve ever met either.”

“Yeah well at least he didn’t physically torture you,” Louis tried to sound blasé about it but he was pretty sure he’d failed.

One of Harry’s hands came up to rub Louis’ back, because of bloody course it did, Harry couldn’t help himself when he thought someone was hurting.

“I mean…” Louis added, “We did invade you I suppose.”

Harry nodded, but didn’t remove his hand from Louis’ back.

“So what now?” Harry asked after a moment.

Louis shrugged, “Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll be able to introduce you to some of the pack, but we better stay inside today. We could watch a movie? I’m not sure what Zayn’s got but still…” Louis said leading the way out of the room and back to the lounge, “Zayn’ll be able to tell us what the mood was like when he gets back.”

 

* * *

 

“So what am I allowed to do?” Harry asked as Louis and Zayn showed him around the encampment the next day.

“Um… well…” Louis bit his lip, knowing that Harry was obviously a little frustrated, “I’m sure Mum would be able to find you something to do.”

Harry raised his eyebrows, “I’m not sure your father would like me stinking up the pack house.”

Louis shrugged, “Well frankly he’s not there a lot so he doesn’t get a lot of say.”

Harry frowned, but obviously decided not to comment on that particular piece of information, “I do like cooking.”

Zayn snorted, “Cooking? Why one earth do you like cooking?”

Harry looked nonchalant, “I find it calming.”

“And he has an annoying need to look after everyone,” Louis added, and being rewarded with a raise of the eyebrows from Zayn, “Once everyone gets used to you I’m sure there’ll be more things to do. You’ve just got to give them time.”

“Show them my dimples,” Harry said giving Louis a grin.

“Shod off,” Louis replied, giving him an elbow in the ribs.

Zayn frowned, “Why do I feel like I just missed an inside joke?”

“He’s being annoying, just ignore him,” Louis said as they walked up to the main campfire, “Once the probation period is over you’ll be allowed out with the hunting parties and the likes. But until then you’re stuck with me.”

“Well I can think of worse proposals,” Harry shot back.

“Ok,” Zayn cut in, “Enough with the flirting, it’s sickening.”

Louis gave him an apologetic look but Harry just smiled smugly.

“Just avoid the Fletchers,” Louis said, changing the subject, “they lost two of their kids in the battle so they won’t be particularly welcoming.”

“Not that anyone beyond Jay and the girls are liking to be _particularly_ welcoming,” Zayn added as he moved to add more wood to the fire, “You’ll be the first newcomer who has been welcomed for… well at least as long as I’ve been alive.”

“So you don’t interact with other packs very much?” Harry asked, as he and Louis sat down on a log near the fire.

Zayn shook his head as he heaved a stump into the coals of the fire, “Nah, I mean, not unless we’re attacking them.”

“Right…” Harry said slowly, “Maybe I should have said friendly interaction.”

Zayn grinned half-heartedly, “Yeah, no. Not a lot of that. I suppose you get a fair bit from the other coalition packs.”

Harry nodded, “Yeah and we’ve got a couple of former loaners as well.”

Zayn screwed up his face, “Why?”

“Well both of them are male omegas and we had a plague that played havoc with our breeding population,” Harry explained, “So we welcome pretty much any omegas who wants to join.”

“Unmated omega loaners don’t usually last very long.” Zayn comment, as he came to sit next to them. 

Harry nodded “Yeah well that’s partly why we invite them to join whenever we come across them. My brother in law was a loner by birth. His beta mother was able to protect and hide him for most of his life but, well… she’s dead now.”

“So you’ve got outsiders right within the pack alpha’s family,” Zayn commented with raised eyebrows.

Harry nodded, “Yeah, that’s why I’m the future pack leader and not Gemma. Father said no one would accept an outsider as the pack omega.”

“Makes sense,” Zayn comment, nodding, “If someone within our pack did that they’d probably get kicked out.”

Louis’ stomach turned just thinking about it. “What about Liam and his family? You said they’re from the midlands pack?”

Harry nodded, “Yeah when the coalition first formed a family from each pack was chosen to move to each of the other packs. The idea being that the kids in each of the families would eventually interbred with their adopted pack. So all three packs would have family within the other pack and therefore decrease the risk of the packs ever turning on each other.”

“Smart really,” Fẻlicitẻ’s voice sounded from behind them, making them turn to look at the teenager as she approached, “Alliances forged through mating and marriages go as far back as our history books go. Doesn’t always work of course, but the theory is sound.”

Harry smiled in greeting. Louis expected her to come over and sit next to him but instead she made a bee line for the empty section of the log next to Zayn.

“Even our own pack history is full of it,” She continued leaning her elbows on her knees, “Though that hasn’t happened for at least three generations, but that’s not really that long ago.”

“Why’d it stop?” Harry asked, leaning around Zayn to look at the girl.

“Well there’s really no one answer,” She replied, running a hand through her hair, “Part of it was just because inter pack conflict was becoming less deadly so populations were increasing making alliances unnecessary.  But it was also partly because omega rights were on the rise. The selling off of omegas in exchange for goods and land was becoming frowned upon. And shipping omegas off to unknown packs was seen as treating the omegas as less than their alpha or beta counterparts. And love matches were becoming more common as well. So generally omegas were gaining more independence.”

“I don’t know,” Louis said sarcastically, “less than a week ago I was being held in order to trade me for some land.”

Louis saw Harry flinch out the corner of his eye, and his hand twitch as if he wanted to touch him but he restrained himself. Louis was grateful really, they were in public and a lot of people would get their backs up about him being physically affectionate with an outsider.

“That wasn’t about you being an omega,” Harry said instead, “and more about the fact that you’re the son of your pack alpha.”

“I know,” Louis replied with a sigh, “it was meant to be a joke.”

Harry gave him a half arsed smile, “Wasn’t funny.”

“No,” Louis agreed, “I don’t suppose it was.”

“You always did have a terrible sense of humour,” Fẻlicitẻ added with a smirk, “You should see him drunk.”

Louis glared at his little sister, she was only fifteen years old but she was already showing similar levels of sass as he himself had. Funny that it was the omegas in his family who were the most opinionated.

“So Harry,” She asked, turning her gaze on the curly haired boy, “How are you settling in? Lou said you’re staying in Doniya’s old room.”

Harry nodded, “Yeah. I’m doing alright. Not sure what I’m supposed to do with my time though, considering all the restrictions on what I’m allowed to do.”

She grinned back, “Yes, at least us omegas are allowed out on patrol, you’re not allowed to go anywhere without this idiot following you around.” She said indicating Louis.

“Gee thanks. Love you too,” Louis said with an eye role, “He said he likes cooking, so maybe he can help Mum a bit.”

Fẻlicitẻ stuck her tongue out at him before replying, “A lot of the mums could probably use help getting food on the table on nights they don’t bring in wild game. If you let it known you’re willing to help some of them might take you up on it.”

“Someone might be desperate enough to ask you for help,” Zayn said dryly.

Harry chuckled, “I think I’d make quite a good nanny. I babysit my god children all the time. Or… at least I used to.”

Now it was Louis’ turn to refrain from comforting the other boy.

“Well Doniya will have her hands full before the years out,” Zayn said thoughtfully, “She’s needed help just getting up and down as it is. I’ll ask her if she needs some help with cooking and the likes. If you don’t mind dealing with pregnant omegas.”

“To be honest,” Harry said with a self-deprecating smile, “I like pregnant people, and babies.”

“Of course you bloody do,” Louis said shaking his head, “Maybe you should have been the one born an omega.”

Harry shrugged with a smile.

“I’ll ask around for you, and let them know that Louis will be there to keep an eye on you,” Fẻlicitẻ said with a wink at Louis, “I’m sure there’ll be something you can help with.”

 

* * *

 

Harry had been with Louis’ pack for over a week, and Jay was still the only one who was comfortable with him helping around the house. Zayn had asked Doniya if she could use help but her alpha hadn’t liked the idea of an unknown alpha moving freely around their house.

Despite this Jay had been able to get him in with the crèche group. A lot of the older kids and pups were left with a one or two omegas during the day. The omegas would often take it in turns so the mothers got a chance to do house work, cook or just catch some uninterrupted sleep. Jay often helped out, seeing as the entire pup population was quite large. She’d started making a habit of calling Harry over or bringing him along whenever she was scheduled on.

Harry liked the kids, and they didn’t judge the way their parent did. Except for a lot of comments about how bad he smelled they didn’t treat him any differently to the other babysitters. A lot of them wanted to practice pouncing on his curls, just as Cassy had always wanted to.

“Most of these pups mothers are omegas,” Jay said as they sat under a large oak tree just far enough away from the campfire for none of the pups to be in danger of wandering into it, “the beta mothers usually only have one at a time so they don’t need as much help.”

“Do all of them choose to do it in their wolf form?” Harry asked, reaching out to grab one of the older pups by the scruff of the neck and pull him back to the rest of the group.

Jay nodded, “There’s no reason why they have to but no one wants to be different.”

“Karen, our pack’s midwife, said it’s easier in wolf form,” Harry said scratching the ears of another pup who was curled up on the stomach of a sleeping Louis. “She said she recons instinct takes over more.”

Jay looked thoughtful, “I’ve only delivered two babies in human form so I don’t really have enough experience to compare.”

They had eight pups with them at that point, it was lunch time so most of the mothers had come back to take their kids home for dinner. Late afternoon was usually the busiest shift at the crèche, because most of the pups were well rested after post lunch naps and were getting hungry again. The evening shift was still the worst though, because it was night and harder to spot the pups trying to sneak off. Usually at least one of the supervisors had to be in their wolf form so they could use their enhanced vision to keep an eye on everyone.

Harry had noticed on previous occasions that some of the mothers who returned to take pups home for lunch would often not bring them back when  the other mothers did whenever Harry was on. But at least most of them were polite about it, simply taking their children and holding onto them rather than outright yelling or spitting at him as some had when he’d first started showing up to help. Harry had tried not to take it to heart, knowing that they’d do it to any outsider.

“So Lou said something to me the other day that I wanted to ask you about,” Jay said, shooting a glance at her sleeping son.

“Shoot,” Harry said, throwing a ball back to the pup who’d sent it careening towards him.

“Your fathers the pack alpha, yes?” Jay asked, even though Harry was pretty sure they’d established that numerous times.

Harry nodded.

“But your parents aren’t mated.”

He nodded again.

“Is having children outside of a mate bond common amongst your pack?”

“Oh, no,” Harry realising her mistake, “They were bonded when she had me and my sister. Though we do have a few pack member’s who’ve had kids without mating first.”

“They broke their bond?” She asked, clearly surprised, “The pack alpha and omega?”

Harry nodded, scanning the group of pups and doing a head count, “Yeah, they mated young. Mum was only nineteen. They split when I was seven.”

“And the pack allowed it?”

Harry nodded again, comfortable that they’d weren’t missing any pups, “They didn’t really get much of a say.”

“Has your father re-mated? Who does the pack omega duties?” She asked, making it clear to Harry that his parent’s situation would be unheard of in this pack.

“Nah, to be honest Dad’s a bit unfriendly,” Harry replied mildly, “Mum almost did at one point but… we lost him when we lost most of our breeding omegas.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jay said kindly, placing a comforting hand on his arm, “It’s just… well the idea of the pack omega being allowed to re-mate seems even less likely than the alpha pair being allowed to break their bond to begin with.”

Harry shrugged, with a half-hearted smile, “She still does the pack omega’s duties. Frankly I think she runs the pack more than he does. Sometimes I wonder what he actually does, I mean Mum does all the emotional labour and I do all the paper work and schedules. He only really handles negotiations with other packs and battle strategies.”

“Well his negotiations with Mark didn’t go so well,” Jay commented sounding unimpressed, “But still, he allowed his omega to leave when she wanted so I suppose that’s something.”

Harry nodded, wondering where this line of questioning was coming from. Louis had mentioned that Mark wasn’t around much and that he worked through meals quite often, which Harry had seen for himself over the last week. Maybe their marriage wasn’t as cosy as they made it look to outsiders.

“I take it un-mated wolves with children aren’t common here,” Harry asked idly.

Jay shook her head, obviously still thinking of something else, “No, it’s generally accepted amongst the betas now but the omegas would get hell for it, even if they didn’t get kick out the way they would have when I was your age.”

“Well… I’ll make sure not to get anyone pregnant.”


End file.
